Schneider's Island
by illusorygentleman
Summary: It took a few years but Freddie and Jade are finally getting married. However, something very sinister could put and end to that, and everyone they know. A Future Fic in line with my One Night series, but not required for reading. Rated a hard M for language, content, and violence.
1. Preface and Characters

**So, the holidays were very good to me for writing and I managed to get the first chapter done way faster than I was expecting which is still in the proofing and editing stage so it should be up soon. Alright, now this is going to be something completely new and different and I'm really excited to try this type of thing out. I want to make it clear to those just tuning in that this takes place 5 1/2 years after the end of Learning Curves, but isn't required reading. Below, I thought I would give a quick review/preview of what their characters are like and what they might be dealing with.**

* * *

Located 26 miles off the coast of Seattle, WA, Schneider's Island is a peaceful home to nearly 100 residents. The fishing reliant island has maintained that steadily small and peaceful population for the last 20 years, after the mysterious deaths of 11 people that shook the island community changed everything, as the first murders in the island's long history. Unfortunately, they will not be the last.

* * *

**Carly Shay- The Web Star-** After a year of love with her two best friends, Carly left to be on her own at college in Seattle, and recently began working at a newstation.

**Sam Puckett- The Sidekick-** After following her longtime love, Freddie to college with nothing to show for it, Sam has had a hard time adjusting to this new life and felt obligated to come to the wedding.

**Freddie Benson-** **The Groom-** After nearly 7 years of a whirlwind relationship with Jade, Freddie and the goth are finally tying the knot now that both of them have steady jobs, and cannot wait to catch up with his friends.

**Spencer Shay- The Best Brother-** Spencer got married just after LC ended to Amy, and the couple now have a daughter together, but are still as silly as always.

"**Gibby" Gibson- The Entrepreneur –** After opening up and franchising his Gibby's restaurant, the former weirdo has amassed a sizable staff and fortune, and is doing the catering for his long time friend's wedding.

**Tori Vega- The Maid of Honor-** After sorting out a lot of feeling for what she really wanted, Tori is happy just being single and plans to stay that way for a while

**Trina Vega- The Snob-** After getting her cosmetology degree, Trina did what came naturally and worked in hair and makeup until she decided to become a model, with less than stellar results.

**Andre Harris- The Nice Guy-** His grandmother now passed, Andre Harris finally started his music career and has stayed just on the rim of everyone's friend list, happy to see that at least one person hasn't changed since high school.

**Jade West - The Bride-** From the first night they met, Jade West knew who she wanted to spend her life with and now she's about to make that dream a reality. And with a rising television and movie career, she could not be happier.

**Beck Oliver- The Ex-** Disgraced for so long, Beck Oliver finally has his life on track and hopes he can see some of his old friends without any disastrous feelings arising or any narcotics.

**Robbie Shapiro- The Geek-** Finally ditching the puppet after so long, Robbie has been forced to face his schizophrenic disorder, which he is dealing with. Now teaching at his old high school, Robbie has shown that he is a technical genius.

**Cat Valentine- The Innocent-** Cat finally came out fully and could not be happier to have her partner Noelle, out with her and sharing her best friend's big day. But not being able to hold down a real job is certainly killing her happy times.

**Irwin Sikowitz- The Officiate-** Ever the mentor, Jade West's favorite teacher couldn't miss her big day and even volunteered to marry the happy couple.

**Sinjin Van Cleef- The Stowaway-** Sinjin disappeared for a long time after high school, and no one really heard too much from him for a long time, but after an accident went down with his former friends, they all dropped him. Now, he has popped back up, and has a plan to regain their respect.

**Nate Shepherd- The Gentleman-** Prodigal son of a famous film producer, the Texan born working man has kept up an off and on relationship with Tori, and he prays that this week will send the rising star back into his open arms. Nate's temper has gotten him into some real trouble before but the question is, how far might he go to be happy?

**Kelly Kennedy- The Bitch-** Despite a messy breakup with Beck, he still asked her, as a longtime friend now, to be his plus one. She accepted, knowing she'd be miserable, but hopes to meet a potential mate or two while she's stuck.

**Noelle Westlake- The Brain-** Cat's girlfriend of a few years now, the couple has become inseparable, as Noelle has supported Cat with all the money she's made off her manga books, but Cat's noticed lately that the girl has been hiding something.

**T-Bo- The Stranger-** He made smoothies 5 years ago… He's still doing that. What? Some people haven't changed.

**Tasha- The Party Girl-** The longtime girlfriend of Gibby popped up in LA a couple years back at the start of her modeling career and managed to reconnect with a few of her old friends. Now a particularly famous model, Tasha is just looking for a good time

**Amy Rivers-Shay- The Fun Mom-** Amy knew Spencer was the one almost right when they met. An around the world romance later and the two were married and had a wonderful daughter in Savanna, but Amy still struggles with being a mom and her wild past.

**Savanna Shay- The Flower Girl-** Savanna is only a few years old, but she's incredibly smart and curious for her age. A fact that has caused a number of problems for the Shays already.

**Col. Steven Shay- The Soldier-** After finally retiring from the Air Force, Carly and Spencer's father has been looking forward to spending more time with his family, and couldn't be happier to be a part of Freddie's, who he's always considered another kid, big day.

**Robert and Ruby West- The Rich Parents-** Never really approving of their daughter's boyfriend, the Wests finally caved and agreed to pay for the extravagant wedding they believed their daughter would want. But before Jade can make it official, her parents have some ideas on how to stop it all.

**Marissa Benson- The Overbearing Mother-** Not changing much in the last few years, Freddie's only active relative views her son as the most important thing in the world and will go to any and all lengths to make sure her son does the right thing, which does not necessarily include Jade.

* * *

**There will be another couple additions to the cast, but readers, you will meet them when the time is right. And just a head's up... as this is a horror/mystery story, the love scenes I've written for so long will be kept to a minimum, but the death toll will be pushing to the max. I have to credit the show Harper's Island for the concept, and I hope I can carry this as well as they did. Really hope you will enjoy, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the cast and the premise. Thanks for reading as always.**


	2. Gasp

**If you have somehow jumped into this story with this chapter and without reading any of my other works, first off, thanks for checking this out. But really, the characters as they have been used and written so far in my works are explained there. For everyone else, I really hope you enjoy this jump five years into the future. The title and the idea behind the story came from an amazing television mini-series called Harper's Island. If you haven't seen it, please go check it out, and if you have, first off, good for you, and secondly, some of this will seem a tad familiar in places but rest assured that this story will go vastly different. So without any further yapping, let's get started.**

* * *

Located 26 miles off the coast of Seattle, WA, Schneider's Island is a peaceful home to nearly 100 residents. The fishing reliant island has maintained that steadily small and peaceful population for the last 20 years, after the mysterious deaths of 11 people that shook the island community changed everything, as the first murders in the island's long history. Unfortunately, they will not be the last.

* * *

On a fairly large chartered yacht, music was blaring while several people danced and sang, clearly a sign of a great party. The deck was lined with balloons and banners as much as it was with occupants, all giving off the same basic message: Congratulations Freddie and Jade.

The engagement for the couple had been a long and tedious one, and it had been over five years in the making since he proposed to her in a rare December rain. One delay after another had pushed them further and further from their dream of being together as husband and wife- Jade earning the opportunity to get a few acting jobs and Freddie's focus on finishing school and finding a real job. Now that he had his Master's and had a job lined up for after the summer, while Jade was between jobs for a couple months, the couple knew that this was their shot for their dream wedding.

Nearly everyone was there already from both ends of their friends and families, lining the boat and filling it out, side by side with the actual boat workers and servants, all staffed and funded by the heavy pockets of Robert West. With his less than sober wife by his side, Mr. West looked out over the party guests, not so secretly judging each and every one of them, especially those that came from Freddie's side.

It wasn't that Freddie didn't have manners, because he seemed like a nice enough kid, but he didn't come from money and he was way beneath their daughter. Ruby had argued at one point that at least the boy made Jade happy, which they knew was no easy task, but the indignation that the boy showed to her parents the summer after they were engaged, about what happened with Alex. The Wests knew that their nephew was not an entirely good person, but he didn't deserve what happened to him either, not that it was Freddie's fault exactly. Plus, Ms. Benson was an absolute nightmare and the idea of being related to her was something they could never imagine.

Also near the top of their 'hate' list were the Shays, specifically Spencer and his wife Amy, who were loud, rambunctious, and most infuriating for the Wests, silly. They had brought their daughter, Savanna, which instantly nominated her for the flower girl, a role that Ruby West had already picked out a family friend's kid for. But since Spencer was the Best Man, clearly his opinion outranked theirs. Then there was the sister, Carly.

The former web star was now an anchorwoman at a big Seattle news station, and while she knew that her face was really there to get viewers given her web fame, she loved the attention and the job was easy. But she was also a bit self obsessed, which, given how much involvement she had with planning this wedding, bothered the rich socialite couple of Los Angeles. Capping off the family was the Colonel father of the family who was hailed as this huge hero, which was something else to take attention from the Wests.

Even worse than the all the Shays put together was the heavily inebriated blonde who hung around the newscaster. Sam still had her natural beauty, but the bags around her reddened eyes told of the internal pain. She was even more violent and aggressive than she had been as a teenager. The blonde had become a mechanic at a local body shop in Seattle and her arms, and thankfully covered for the guests, chest were littered with tattoos.

There was another one of them that was actually already on the island, which was a blessing for the Wests since being in close proximity to some hulking man child was not at the top of their lists. But sooner or later, they would interact with this Gibby character once more. Though, he was offering a great deal to cook for the wedding reception and as Robert West knew, there was no better way to stay rich than to take advantage of a good deal.

Not that any of Jade's playmates were any better when it came to being normal or upper class. Nearly every member of her whole circle of friends had some creepy or awful quirk that made them want to strangle the young people over and over and over. The only exception was their daughter's old boyfriend, Beck, who they always were fond of and hoped to the heavens that they would finally get back together but that seemed pretty out of the realm of possibilities at this point. Beck was currently working on some show about a teenager who may or may not be a psycho. Needless to say, they enjoyed seeing their dream son-in-law on television a lot more than their impending one when he would visit with Jade.

The black kid wasn't bad either, but since he never really said or did anything in either direction, they had to assume that he was more of a friend of a friend than an actual close friend of their daughter. According to Jade, he was doing the band work for a light night talk show or something similar; the Wests really didn't care. And Jeremiah Shepherd's son looked extremely out of place. They had to wonder what he was doing there since, according to Jade, he and Tori were broken up.

Then there were the Vega sisters. One, semi-talented compared to their daughter, that Jade would constantly have over and would spend almost as much time as she would with Freddie, so of course, she earned the Maid of Honor spot. But her sister was an absolute nightmare. The less said about Trina Vega, who apparently was just a hair stylist, the better. Tori, however, had a record deal, and while she was nowhere near number 1 on any billboard charts, her music wasn't terrible and certainly had potential. It was thanks to her that Jade was able to get some of her original songs out there, something the Wests were certainly grateful for.

The Wests were certainly no strangers to Cat Valentine, but ever since the zippy young redhead had come out, they had seen a lot less of her. She was a sweetheart and Ruby had a soft spot for her. Her girlfriend however was a different story. She was the complete opposite of Cat and a smart aleck and had tattoos and piercings sprinkled over her figure. Noelle was a writer and Cat actually was still basically unemployed, playing kids birthday parties and babysitting for money.

The creepiest, hands down, was Robbie Shapiro, who was teaching at Hollywood Arts, of all places, in some technical aspect of the theater. But really, it was a complete improvement over the teen who practically stalked Jade through school and carried a puppet around all the time. Still, as he stood there on the boat, trying to schmooze with every red blooded female in sight, a vibe of 'creep' couldn't help but arise.

One person that the Wests were actually fond of was Jade's former teacher Irwin Sikowitz, who happened to not only be an ordained minister, and would be officiating the wedding, but was also an old college friend of Robert's

There were a few more that the Wests didn't know or recognize, like the lanky pierced and tatted up blonde or the full bodied brunette that Robert West shamelessly checked out, and the couple wondered if they were actually supposed to be on the yacht, but the way Freddie and Jade were greeting everyone who came aboard, surely they would notice any gatecrashers or stowaways.

* * *

Layered with a disguise that he had spent a couple months on, Sinjin Van Cleef had managed to sneak aboard the wedding cruise, so that he could warn everyone of the real danger that would await them. The others hated him after what happened a few years back when he made a move on Trina that was less than consensual, so he was likely to be shot on sight by anyone at this party.

With that being the case, he had to hide away until he had undeniable proof that this island was going to be a trap, and that at least one of them was far more connected to the murders than anyone knew.

He just needed some more time.

* * *

Spencer brushed past a few people he somewhat recognized when he noticed Carly just staring out over the water, and wanted to see how she was doing. Ever since separating from Freddie and Sam a few years back she had grown up a lot but not all of those changes were for the better.

"Hey, kiddo… you doing ok?"

"Oh… yeah… sure," she said, less than confidently. "Just kind of surreal. Freddie getting married."

"Tell me about it…" he said, holding her shoulder. "I'm honestly just getting used to being married myself, and I've been at this for… a few years now."

"Oh please… you're a dad now. You have to be a grown up." Carly hugged her brother a bit, anxious to see how this whole week would go. "Is it weird that I always kinda thought he and I would… you know, fall in love and do all this?"

"Eh, I think it's natural to play through all the 'what if's' and stuff when a life event comes calling. I remember how freaked out I was when Amy told me she was pregnant. I was like losing my mind because we had only been married for like three or so months. Barely any us time… so I played through all the 'what might have been's' then, but I'm happy. Like, ridiculously happy."

"I never would have thought the dad role would suit you, but you were practically my dad for all the important years."

"I was there for some of that, you know," a voice said from behind her. Carly swung around and instantly gave her dad a big hug, even though she had just seen him a few minutes before. "But thank god for Spencer…"

"Yeah," Carly agreed.

"Do you remember this place, hon?" her father asked, getting a strange look from his daughter. "Spencer probably does but you might have been a bit too young. The four of us came here a lot when you were little."

Carly almost asked who the fourth was, but the answer was obvious, and it was more than clear that her dad never really liked talking about her mom. Her brother, sensing that this was a tender moment, hugged his family tight as the looked out over the water, and tried not to worry about to the woman that changed all their lives by bringing two of them into the world.

The Shays stood there for several minutes laughing and just being close as the party raged on until suddenly Spencer backed up and started looking around.

"Has anyone seen T-bo?" he called out, to no one in particular, but got no answers.

As Spencer looked around the boat, he felt a vibration in his pocket. Grabbing his pear phone he checked his texts and saw one from the man in question.

-not feelin good man. Payin da price for those gas station burritos n doin my time on the toilet. Imma get the next boat I can.

The eldest Shay child shook his head and laughed at the ridiculous smoothie bar manager, looking up at the Wests, and giving the signal that everyone from their side was there. Apparently, they had already gotten the signal from Jade and Robert West raised his hand to the boat captain and motioned to get started.

The boat took off in the next minute, knocking a few unsteady people off their feet momentarily, but within a few moments, the party carried on as the ship headed towards what would be, for many people at least, the last place they would ever see.

* * *

Just near the docks where a party boat was departing, there was a men's public bathroom stall, which was normally reserved for the handicapped, but someone had been in there for what seemed like an hour. But thanks to privacy, no one could really see or crawl into the stall to unlock it.

This might have been for the best, since there was a rather tall and lanky black man in bright orange who lay completely still and cold on the ground, his lungs filled with the dirty toilet water from where he took his final breaths. His head was no longer bleeding from where someone had bashed it into the ceramic base.

Yes, it was truly for the best that no one had to see T-Bo like this.

* * *

They had only been on the water for half an hour before the girls all began to gossip about the coming week and where they would be spending their time. In a tight circle, Jade was joined by Carly, Sam, Cat, Noelle, Tori, and Trina.

"So, I'm assuming you've heard the legends about this place right?"

Jade shot a look at Sam that screamed of hate and condemnation for asking such a dumb question. "Of course I have. It's half the reason I picked this place."

"You picked it?" Carly said, shooting her a playful look. "The way I remember it is that I told Freddie about this place after I looked up cool venues to have YOUR wedding."

"Well, yeah… but still, I had the final word. There were other places I could have chosen."

"Anyway…" Tori said, trying to change the topic. "I actually haven't really heard of this legend you guys are talking about."

"Seriously?" Trina said, amazed by her sister's lack of awareness, which really was as ironic as it sounds.

"Sorry…" Tori apologized and looked to the others to fill her in.

"Well," Noelle started, adjusting her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose. "The story goes is that sometime in the late 90's some… guy… never really found out who… went on a murder spree. Stabbed and killed ten people I think."

"11," Carly corrected. "The story was all over the news here and it pops up every so often whenever someone gets stabbed in Seattle. The Schneider Slasher, he was called."

"Schneider Slasher, Schneider Slasher," Cat repeated, as if it were a tongue twister. "Schneider-"

"Sweetie…" Jade said, grabbing the redhead's hand tightly. "That's enough of that."

"I heard it was a chainsaw and he ripped people to shreds, but saved their eyes to eat."

The whole circle stared at Trina for several seconds, wondering if she was serious or if she was really that stupid. Rather than belittle the already losing at life young woman, Tori went back to the subject at hand.

"But that was a long time ago, right?" Tori asked, looking around the boat as if the danger might still be around. "So, we're not gonna get all murdered and stuff just for going there, right?"

Sam rolled her eyes, but Jade leaned forward and grabbed Tori's hands. "Look, Vega… it was 20 years ago, and they have weddings at this place like once a month, so yeah… we're all gonna be just fine."

* * *

Within an hour of the girls' conversation, the boat had docked on a quaint little fishing town that was pretty sparsely populated, and given the looks that they were being given as they embarked onto the mainland, these people were not fond of outsiders. The fact that 'servants' were carrying half the luggage didn't help with any of these thoughts.

Gibby met them at the docks and pulled Freddie and Jade, along with Carly and Spencer, aside as he pointed the way to the guest rooms in the big house.

"Guys… good to see you. And congrats," he playfully said, giving a way too hard punch to Freddie's shoulder. "As you can see, I got 'Gibby's' up and prepping inside and we have enough food for all week plus your wedding shindig. It's gonna be awesome."

"All these…" Freddie said, to the young men and women that were going in and out of the house with stuff, "… they work for you?"

"Yup…" Gibby said, crossing his arms, a prideful grin across his face. "All employees of my restaurant in Seattle and the other three I got in Yakima, Spokane, and Olympia. Should be getting a new place up in Oregon in a few months. Super excited."

"That's fantastic, Gibster!" Spencer said, offering his hand for a high five, which Gibby gladly gave him. "So is there anything else to know before we head upstairs and just collapse?"

"Nah man… you guys just kick it, and I'll see you down for dinner or whatever." Gibby turned and headed back for the house when something hit him in a flash. "Hey, you guys come over with T-Bo? He was supposed to be bringing me some supplies for drinks."

"No…" Spencer called back. "He said he was feeling sick so he'll be coming a bit later."

"He better," Gibby said under his breath. "Or else we won't be drinking clean water for too long…"

* * *

Immersed in water a couple floors above the kitchen, Noelle sat in a bubble bath pondering what she could possibly do to handle what she felt needed to be done. As she sat there, just breathing to herself, she looked out and saw Cat changing in the bedroom.

"Cat?" she called out.

"Yeah?" the redhead said, coming to the doorway wearing matching silver bra and panties. "You ok?"

"Yeah… I just… I guess I don't feel like I fit in with the rest of you guys."

"Baby…" Cat said, sitting on the edge of the tub. "you've known most of these people for like 5 years. And you're plenty liked."

"I guess… I just feel kinda uncomfortable around a lot of them… I feel like what happened senior year is still on some people's minds, and the looks just make me feel… off."

"Aww…" Cat said, making a sad face, leaning in a bit to kiss the top of Noelle's head. "I love you Noe-y."

"Same here, Kitty Cat."

Cat went to get up and check herself out in the mirror when Noelle gave her a playful look, both her hands hiding beneath the bubbles.

"Before you go, I want to show you something…"

Cat gave her girlfriend a raised eyebrow. "This isn't going to be like the time you surprised me with that… toy, right?"

"Maybe…"

"Then is what you have for nice and big?" Cat wasn't great at being sexy as it usually came off as childlike, but she was giving it her all."

"Oh… umm… I, uh…" Noelle stumbled for words, trying to figure out the answer to her question. "You know what… nevermind, baby…"

Cat gave an upset look and shrugged, heading back into the bedroom to finish getting ready.

Noelle raised one hand from the bubbles and revealed a shiny diamond ring to the light of the empty bathroom before staring at it.

"I guess the question is…" she said nervously, as if it could answer back, "are you 'big?'"

* * *

"Now, first off, I'd like to thank everyone who was able to make it, and especially thanks to all those that have bent over backwards to make this whole thing happen." Freddie stared out over the crowd, his hand clenching Jade's tightly as he projected his voice to a dining room filled with their friends. "Mr. and Mrs. West, this could not have happened without you guys and of course, for having such an amazing and special daughter."

"Bleh!" Sam called out as she watched her former love plant a soft kiss on Jade's lips before she felt a sharp hand on her thigh.

"Behave, Sam!" Carly said, trying to rein her best friend in.

"And naturally massive thanks go to my friend Gibby, who is catering this whole experience, and I could not ask for a better guy to handle the job. So if you enjoyed dinner tonight, all the thanks go to him and his team." Freddie's eyes searched the crowd for someone else to comment on, trying to ignore the looks that Sam was giving him, but stopped on Carly. "I couldn't get away without saying a special thank you to my longest and dearest friend, Carly Shay for planning this whole shebang, as well as her brother and father, for always being there for me growing up, just as much as my own mother."

Marissa Benson rolled her eyes at the comparison, but still clapped for her son, despite feeling very little joy in the festivities.

"What only a handful of you might not know, is that legally, Jade and I have been married for over a year."

A wave of confusion and crazed looks covered the crowd, eliciting sounds of pure surprise and horror from their respective parents. The only two unfazed were Tori and Carly, who were well aware of this fact.

"We did it before Jade left to go shoot that horror show, and tt wasn't exactly legally binding, but we decided to do it and have a couple friends there to support us. But, since no person should have an Elvis impersonator as their officiate, we knew that we needed to have a real wedding, and I couldn't imagine celebrating such a huge moment in our lives than with the people in this room tonight!"

Despite the shock and surprise, the crowd still toasted the groom and his blushing bride before everyone taking a drink in their honor.

As the crowd slowly built up a roar again, Jade whispered to Freddie very angrily. "I thought w weren't going to tell anyone about what we did."

"I didn't tell all of it, baby… so that secret is safe with us, I promise." Freddie stroked her hair and kissed her forehead. "I just felt everyone should know how much this meant to you and me."

"Ok…" Jade nodded, taking a deep breath before joining the booming crowd that filled the dining area of the inn. She wanted to just disappear back into the room, but after Tori waved her over, she was pretty much trapped. There was a circle of girls looking at her now- Tori, Cat, Noelle, and Amy. "Hey…"

"Jade!" Cat said excitedly, practically jumping up and down. "Why didn't you tell us?!"

"Sorry, Cat…" Jade said, sighing heavily. "I had no idea Freddie was going to tell everyone. Plus, it was really simple and basic… but this is the one that actually matters."

"I thought what Freddie said was actually kinda sweet," Amy said, trying to come off as nice since she didn't know Jade nearly as well as the other girls.

"He's the best," Tori responded, earning a glance from Jade before Cat leaned in started jumping up and down again.

"You ok?" Noelle asked nervously.

"Yeah…" Cat said, looking at Jade. "I was just thinking how exciting it would be to catch your bouquet!"

Noelle's eyes went wide for a moment as she thought about what that meant, but before she could speak, Jade headed her off.

"Cat, I'm pretty sure you're the last person who needs to worry about catching a bouquet." Cat looked sad by the fact, but the subject quickly shifted.

"I never knew that Carly and Freddie had such a close relationship," Amy said, pointing over to the bar where the two longtime friends were drinking together and laughing, and a noticeable sneer crossed Jade's lips. "I don't think you have anything to worry about my sister in law, Jade."

"Yeah… he's the reason iCarly got off the ground, so it makes sense that they would be close," Tori said, keeping a watchful eye. "But with the exception of a few times when they were in like high school, they really are just friends."

"I don't know…" Cat said sheepishly, thinking back all those summers ago when Carly was all over Freddie, and the man in her sights not only popped her cherry, but obliterated every atom of her body.

"Cat, I love you, but you need to seriously shut up…" Jade muttered.

"I have to side with my girlfriend on this one," Noelle said, speaking up, earning the patented Jade West death glare. "Sorry… but I have never believed for one second that men and women could just be friends."

"They can… and they are." The goth said through gritted teeth, clenching her fists so tight that it took Tori's soft touch to cause an unclenching.

Amy said something in contrast to what Cat said, but there was little more than buzzing in the mind of Jade West. Without much of a warning, she stood up and left the circle and headed out the front door.

* * *

A few minutes after his bride slipped from the party, Freddie was left alone at the bar when Carly went and joined the girls who were in the midst of an argument over men and women being friends. He considered weighing in, but the idea of getting into that mess just made his head hurt.

His gaze danced across the room, anxious to see if everyone was enjoying themselves, but for the most part, people were keeping to tight knit groups. That's when he noticed that Sam was nowhere to be seen.

"Crazy party…"

Freddie spun around, half jumping when her heard the soft and simple voice he hadn't heard in months and came face to face with Tasha, of all people, Gibby's ex-girlfriend. Part of him was ashamed as he looked her up and down, still unable to believe that she had gone from some scrawny cute girl to this bombshell.

"Holy jesus… you look amazing."

"I know," she said, grinning and taking a whole shot in one go. "You can thank Jesus all you want, but its just genetics."

Freddie was put off a bit by the girls' arrogant nature, but that was just par for the course with the attractive young woman. From his understanding, after Tasha graduated high school, a year ahead of the iCarly gang, she went off to LA to become a model. And by complete accident, he had run into her in the mall downtown with Jade. She caught him up that she was just getting by and they exchanged contact info. And after three years of intense work and little jobs, she had finally gotten her break- a music video.

The summer after Freddie and Jade got an apartment together, there was this awful song that seemed to imply rape called 'Distorted Signals,' and in it, Tasha was topless and practically nude and just danced like a stripper as the singer grinded against her. Freddie would never admit to watching the video, but he had it bookmarked on his Pearpad. The humiliating video launched a whole ad campaign for lingerie, and last he heard from her last fall, she was becoming an 'Angel' for Victoria's Secret.

"Nice to see that you haven't let this fame go to your head," Freddie said, sipping his drink, and smirking.

"I came here for you, you know. You don't have to be an ass."

"Sorry…" he said, doing his best to look at her eyes when he spoke and not a bit lower. "Been one of those nights. Guess I'm a bit on edge."

"Understandable," she said, fully taking the seat next to him. "Figured you would be among the first few people from high school to get married, but I always figured it would be to someone… a bit closer to home."

Her words, as if magic, triggered Freddie's phone to go off with a text alert. He quickly opened it and the color drained from his face momentarily.

"I'm sorry, Tasha…" Freddie said, taking a deep breath and staring at his phone. "I really need to take care of something. We can talk later."

"Umm.. ok," she said, looking confused and a little disappointed. "Bye."

Freddie rushed through the halls of the inn until he reached the spot to where he had been summoned, next to the staircase.

"Sam?" he whispered, and the blonde rounded a corner and looked him dead in the eyes. "What's this about?"

"Look, Freddie…" she said, tucking her hair behind her ear, and summoning all the courage she could muster, and probably a bit more from a bottle from the looks of her. "I know you're here and this is happening and all, but… don't you think… I mean… its-"

"Sam… I have no idea what you're getting at… come on, Puckett."

The blonde just sighed and shook her head. "Look… I… love you and-"

"Sam, I can't do this again… not after everything that has happened, and certainly not here." Freddie stared at her eyes, and saw that this was raw emotion and that she felt what she said, but the fact of the matter was that things had changed. "I will always love you, and you'll forever be my… first in every way, but I'm getting married. To Jade."

"She's not telling you everything," Sam said, with just a hint of bitterness as if she was baiting him but Freddie wouldn't take it.

"No… That's fucked up, Sam…" he started to walk away when he darted back to her. "Look, Carly said you were doing a lot better, and that is why you were invited. You're one of my best friends and not having you around would suck… but if this is what you're going to be like… I don't know if you should stay here."

Sam sneered and wanted to respond, but instead just threw her hands up. "What the fuck ever, Benson."

With that, she stepped out into the night and Freddie didn't have any intention of chasing after her. The groom turned and headed back to the party where most of his guests were, completely unaware that someone was eavesdropping at the top of the stairs.

As Sam stumbled away from the door, she headed towards where the woods met the property, taking a sharp left before entering the courtyard. Had the booze besotting blonde been looking that way, she might have caught a glimpse at something quite sinister with other guests.

* * *

"You know, fifty thousand dollars would go a long way, Beck."

As the dark haired actor stared into the eyes of a very serious and very intimidating Mrs. West, he couldn't help but see that she wasn't wrong. The truth was that he owed a good bit of money to some pretty bad people, so a little bit of cash would certainly fix that problem.

"So what would I have to do?"

"Well," the aging beauty began, taking a look around for any ears, "from what Robert was telling me, you and Jadelyn have some unfinished business that you wouldn't mind reigniting."

"High school was a really long time ago, ma'm…"

"Really? From my understanding, it just over a year ago since you kids..."

"You heard about that?" Beck asked, stunned that she would have this info. His mind fluttered back to the summer after their senior year at UCLA, when Jade came to him crying, begging for him to let her stay. One thing led to another, and while he wasn't even sure if she was still with Freddie, he didn't care. They had sex and just found each other over and over for a weekend, and just when Beck had dug out his feelings for his former love, she was gone, and not long after that, she was back with Freddie.

"I'm her mother. She does tell us things. In fact, she asked my advice on what to do about the subject of you, and I told her some advice that she ignored."

"Oh really? And that would be?"

"That she missed getting engaged to the right person. Robert and I were always so fond of you Mr. Oliver, and we felt you would have been a find addition to the family."

"Look…" Beck began starting to feel very uncomfortable with this situation. "You just want me to win her back… at her own wedding?"

"It shouldn't be hard…" Ruby said, licking her lips. "Freddie knows he doesn't belong in this family so driving him away shouldn't be difficult. Then maybe you and our daughter can get… back on track. Do it before the end of the week and you might just sink from how much you'll make for it."

Beck thought long and hard and looked into the windows where he could see the party raging on, and for a moment, he felt like what he was doing was wrong, but when he saw Freddie come behind Jade and hold her from behind, his hand just clenched, his conscience slowly damning him.

"You've got a deal."

* * *

Back inside the party, a former ventriloquist sat in a chair longingly staring out over the crowd, feeling a bit sad for coming here alone. It wasn't for a lack of trying at least, but no one wanted to be his date. Not that he could blame them really, he thought to himself.

"Hi."

The gentle voice snapped Robbie from his stupor, and pushed him into another one as he looked at the absolute perfect woman that sat before him, who he vaguely recognized.

"Oh… hi," he choked out.

"I'm Tasha," the goddess said, giving him a soft look.

"Oh fuck…" Robbie nearly said aloud, his brain clicking where he knew her face from as he struggled to respond. "I'm Robbie… Shapiro."

"Oh, cool…" she smiled back, "Nice to meet you. Friend of the bride or groom?"

"Both… but moreso the bride… we went to high school together. But Freddie and I were roommates in college for freshman year."

"I actually went to high school with Freddie, but we met again a couple years ago and kinda reconnected."

"This…" Robbie took a deep breath as he was about to pop the bubble of awkwardness, "is going to seem weird, but are you Tasha Ra-"

"I'll stop you there," she said, looking a bit embarrassed. "Yeah. My last name is an absolute nightmare to pronounce and spell. I want to just drop it so I can be a one name, you know… like Madonna, Cher, Prince-"

"Or 'Cunt'" came a voice behind Tasha, which caused the model to spin around and see a thicker girl that she immediately rolled her eyes at. "I think that could work well for you. Full name Whore Cunt."

"Trina…" Robbie said through gritted teeth, already pissed at his former girlfriend. "The hell?"

"You two know each other?" Tasha asked looking back and forth.

"Yeah," Trina responded, tossing her hair back. "I used to date limp dick here years ago, but then I realized I needed to get someone on my level."

"And while you were down in the sewer, did you find anything?" Tasha shot back. "Now leave us alone. I was having a conversation."

"Not until you admit," Trina said, clearly a bit wasted, "that you fucked that music video director guy and that's why you got the job."

"No…" Tasha said, firmly. "I didn't have to screw my way up to the top… I'm not you."

"Just stop, Trina…" Robbie spoke up, shaking his head. "Just crawl back to whatever hole you crawled out of to get here."

"Oh, don't get me started on you, Shapiro!" she practically yelled, slowly moving towards him. "Shocked you could actually make time to come here in between your constant breakdowns and failed suicide attempts. I'd tell you to go fuckin' kill yourself, but you'd probably fuck it up… again."

Robbie was seeing red, and in an attempt to save face in front of this gorgeous girl that he'd thought about time and time again, usually in unsavory ways, he just bolted. The curly haired teen nearly knocked a handsome dark haired teen that had his eyes set on finding the bride and having a long chat.

* * *

Far from the nearly empty party, two girls, who couldn't love each other more if they tried, playfully walked over each other on their way to the edge of the inn's grounds, where the water met the shore. Cat, never one to do the thing that made sense, blindly ran towards the water, anxious to see how it would feel. Her toe told her the temperature was perfect so she took the next logical step- getting in.

"Whoa, babe," Noelle warned. "You're going to get your dress all dirty and wet. You don't… want…"

She couldn't even finish her sentence as she saw that it wouldn't be a problem as the plucky redhead slipped the dress from her shoulders, revealing her topless form to the water, the night's moon offering just enough of a silhouette that Noelle could salivate over.

"But…" the dark haired girl struggled, "I have… something I need to talk to you about…"

"Nuh uh!" she called out as she raced and jumped right into the water, leaving Noelle to watch her fish of a girlfriend immerse herself completely in the pitch black sea. "No more talking until you catch me, Noey."

The Michigan native was left on the shore, staring at the mound of clothes at her feet, wondering if she should just go join her, but the idea of taking all of her clothes off out in the open like this was incredibly uncomfortable. But, she'd be damned if she wanted to spend another minute more than a few feet from her love.

Without warning, Noelle heard Cat scream, and she dropped her clothes and purse in an instant and dove in after her to try and save the sweet girl from whatever terror awaited her.

* * *

Spencer was having a pretty intense nightmare about the island, where he was running from a man and trying to get to the inn but he was slowing down and the man was speeding up. The man wasn't even someone he knew, just an amalgamation of faces he couldn't exactly place, but it was still scary.

So when he suddenly awoke in bed, seeing Amy happily asleep next to him, he relaxed for a little bit, and turned over to face the wall and get comfortable. Which nearly gave him a heart attack.

By his bedside, Savanna was just staring at him, wearing her little nightgown, and as much as he loved the little girl, sometimes she could freak him out.

"You have a bad dream, sweetie?" he asked softly, so not to wake his wife.

Savanna just shook her head, but remained expressionless. "Daddy… did you know a lot of people died here?"

Spencer's stomach just tightened in absolute terror as this was the creepiest thing he had ever experienced. "No… well, I know… who told you that? Was it Aunt Carly?"

As creeped out as he was, Spencer felt prepared to take his daughter back to her little room by theirs, but he was in no way ready for her next response, which sent icy chills through his body.

"No… my new friend from the window told me."

* * *

"Cat?" Noelle called out, trying her best to see, and stay afloat since she wasn't the best swimmer. "Kitty Cat?"

Silence and stillness.

"Baby… this isn't… if you're ok, you need to t- ggggglll"

Noelle was silenced as she was pulled hard underwater, gasping for air, she just couldn't get, as a strong force was keeping her down. She let out a scream, and the force stopped as the dark haired teen gasped for the air of the surface, coming face to face with her near assailant. The cute, laughing, stringy red hair covered face.

"Hahaha!" Cat exclaimed, unable to stop laughing at the staunch scowl that was painted on Noelle's face, which was morphing into a sneer with each passing second. "You were like-"

Cat never had the chance to finish her thought as Noelle dove at her, using both hands to hold the playful redhead underneath the billowing waves until Cat began to really struggle, and Noelle snapped out of it and let her up.

"You… GANK!" Cat screamed as she looked at Noelle with a truly hurt look on her face. She quickly swam towards the shore calling out to Noelle who could just doggy paddle and stare. "You could have hurt me… you don't know how to play."

"Cat… baby…"

"Don't 'baby' me," she called back once she was ashore, dressing herself in a hurry. Cat starts to walk off, but then grabs Noelle's purse, and grabs the keys to the room before tossing the purse in the water, which inspired Noelle to save it.

The dark haired young woman quickly grabbed the purse, and searched it for the real prize, praying that Cat didn't see what she was keeping in there. But the ring was nowhere to be found, no doubt slipping out into the pitch black water before her.

"Fuuuuuuck…" she said, squinting her eyes in frustration before getting dressed back and trudging back to the inn.

* * *

"Fuuuuuuck!"

Freddie looked up into the eyes of his one true love and watched as Jade came down from her second, and clearly strongest, orgasm of the night, as he tied to recover from his explosion. The dark haired bride-to-be took a few deep breaths as she settled down, her face nuzzling her lover's neck, as the waves cooled down inside her.

Jade loved when Freddie would finish inside her, but here and now, in this bed, the last one they would share before becoming a real husband and wife, it was something that was beyond magical. The light shining in from the window illuminated Freddie's face, allowing her to see the smile on his face and love in his eyes before kissing him in a way that left no question how she felt in this moment.

"Was I too loud?" she whispered between kisses, knowing the obvious answer.

"Nah… we can just tell people someone was murdered."

It was a joke, but the moment he said it, he felt a little ashamed of himself given the island's history.

"You want to take a shower with me?" Jade asked, sliding away from Freddie slowly.

"Eh… I'm pretty exhausted, babe…" he said, looking at a sad look on her face. "I think I will just do a quick clean up and get into bed. I can't keep up with you."

"What can I say?" she said, biting her lip softly, "I am so turned on, it's ridiculous. Fine, go do your thing, but you better keep this bed warm for me, Freddie Benson. And we're having sex in the morning."

Freddie was taken aback a little by her giving him orders, but as he looked into her beautiful eyes, he couldn't very well argue with her being a bossy pants. "You got it… Mrs. Benson."

"Ughghh" Jade said, fake vomiting. "I nearly threw up in my mouth… that makes it sound like your mom."

"My bad…" Freddie said, going to kiss her again.

"No kisses for you until I'm showered," Jade said, wrapping herself in the sheets. "Now go take your traditional piss and clean that beautiful cock of yours."

Freddie grinned as he shook his head and headed into the bathroom, leaving Jade to touch herself, still feeling the effects of the incredible sex they had just experienced. She might have taken it a step further and gotten started before the shower, but a phone buzz on Freddie's side shook her from her mood.

Her curiosity drove her to check it after only a minute, and when she saw it was from Sam, she was instantly torn. On the one hand, she knew that Freddie loved her and was going to marry her, but the fear that his old feelings for the blonde could pop back up anytime was too much to bear.

-im sorry bout b4. I love u. talk n da morning.

Jade stared at the message, her anger fuming, and she considered deleting it but her mind flooded back to the camp they fell in love and she deleted a message from Sam and it ruined their relationship for a while. So, she resisted her urges, and left it marked at new and left it alone. For now.

As she heard the toilet flush, with the accompanying faucet use, Jade put the phone back on the stand and started to get out of bed, ready to take over the bathroom for her shower, where hopefully she could wash away the way she was feeling right now.

* * *

It had been a long day for Sinjin, hiding in plain sight from everyone at the party, but for the last couple hours he had holed up in an empty room he had gotten into. The thin college student had been poring over books and newspapers, looking for clues that would link what happened all those years ago to what was going on now.

The names of the victims had been withheld when the murders happened, but were mentioned in an issue a few years later, and finding which one that was had taken up most of his evening, but finally he had found it.

As he scrolled through the names, there was one that stuck out like a sore thumb, and it took Sinjin a couple minutes to realize why. And that's when the truth hit him like a ton of bricks: There was a killer here on the island… and even worse, they had come over on the same boat as him. The idea that a killer might be among them made him Sinjin completely nauseous, so he raced to throw up in the bathroom.

As he stared into the mirror after he had emptied his system, Sinjin began to wonder why he had come without Berf, and had taken it upon himself to try and save the people that ruined his life in high school. But that was the reason right there. He could be a hero and get the respect he craved at last.

Sinjin headed back into his room, setting his glasses on the nightstand and closed his eyes, rubbing his face from exhaustion and soreness, and let out a loud yawn, but it was silenced with a fist.

A single punch knocked the gangly nerd down to the bed, and before he could even react, a force was put on his stomach and a pillow covered his face. He thrashed wildly, but whatever was on him, was no backing down, and he found that it was getting harder and harder to breathe. He used the last of his strength to push whoever this was back, but before he could get a good look at his assailant, they struck him again and pinned him with the pillow.

This time, he wasn't so lucky, and within a few seconds, his breathing had ceased and he was still at last.

The killer took a deep breath, thinking that this certainly went down easier than what happened with the smoothie guy, before grabbing all the articles and papers from the nerd's bed. Dumping the information into a metal trash can nearby, the killer tossed a book of matches into the container, letting the stuff that would have saved a number of lives, burn to a crisp, as the nimble killer locked the door and headed back to their room, glad that yet another loose end had been taken care of.

* * *

**One chapter in and already we have two names to scratch off the character list. Just like it's inspiration, the body count will increase by at least one with every chapter. Also a carryover from the show, you may notice that the title of this chapter is the sound of Sinjin's death, something that will remain the case throughout the story. Cannot wait to hear your thoughts and feelings moving forward, so thanks for reading and be sure and comment/review.**


	3. Skritch

**It's hard to believe I actually got something done on time but here we are. I know a lot of you have been waiting for the next chapter, so I won't waste your time here with pleasantries. I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Freddie made sure he got up early the next morning, and was really torn as he looked down at his sleeping lover, who was wearing one of his old plaid shirts, her mouth agape, deep in dreamland. He desperately wanted to get back into bed with her, but right now, he really needed to get away and take care of some pressing matters.

The former tech producer threw on some shorts and a t-shirt, the perfect outfit for jogging, and headed down the stairs, to the nearly empty inn. Freddie raced out and jogged down to the docks, where there was no one around and checked his phone for the time before scrolling back to the text he'd received late last night that encouraged this meeting.

"I honestly didn't think you'd come see me."

Freddie spun around and looked at Sam, who he had to admit, looked amazing. She had showered, brushed her hair, and had truly cleaned up since last night, and it did wonders for her.

"I didn't think I would either, but here I am."

"Why?" she asked, eager to know why he was so willing to see and be around her if his feelings for Jade were so pure.

"I don't know…" Freddie said, shaking his head. "We've been friends for like 10 years… it felt wrong to let you just stand here waiting for something."

"Well, I'm glad you did…" Sam said, tucking her hair behind her ear, the definitive move that signaled her vulnerability. "You know I… I love you, Freddie."

"I know…" he said, knowing where this was going. "And I love you too, Sam… but only as a friend… like I told you last night."

"But Freddie… you left Jade to come see me and don't completely know why… don't you think that means something."

"I think it just means that I'm stupid and that a mistake has been made."

"Look, you may want to forget that night the summer after you graduated college the first time, but I never will." Sam wasn't backing down from her feelings this time. She had spent hours preparing for this moment and she wasn't going to let him just walk away and deny what they shared. "The look in your eyes when you held me, when I broke my one rule for you because I just knew you were the one and it didn't matter."

"I'm sorry…" he said, looking at the ground. "I didn't mean to-"

"To what?" she cut off. "To lead me on or make me think that something was there and it wasn't. You're so full of shit. You really don't remember that week we had?"

There wasn't any question in Sam's mind about what really went down when they got back together for those fleeting days. He made her feel like she was 17 again, sharing those intimate, incredible moments in bed that she would never admit to anyone. He made her fall in love, and feel that bliss she'd been chasing ever since they parted ways a couple years before. Sam had just gotten her life back on track, and he derailed everything by swooping in like an angel, and then flying away just as quickly.

It had been over a year since they'd embraced the spark between them and fanned the flames, but here and now, on the docks in the mild fog, she wanted to rekindle every single ember of that blaze.

"Sam, I'm getting married in just a couple days… I can't do this anymore. If you can't handle the fact that I'm getting married, maybe…" he struggled with telling this girl, who he still loved dearly, the thing that would crush her dreams, but he had no choice. "Maybe you should just get a ferry home."

"I can't… I can't just go, Freddie. I want you to be happy." Sam was on the verge of crying. "That's the fucked up thing. I know Jade's really what would make you happy, but I had to try… I couldn't live with myself if I didn't try. Because I know you were, and still are, what always makes me happy."

Freddie moved forward to hug her for this revelation, but she took a step back.

"Not yet…" she muttered. "I can't feel your touch and walk away. It's one or the other."

The former tech producer knew that Sam really did need someone to hold her, but he also knew how important it was that he kept his emotional distance. "I'm sorry it happened the way it did, you know."

"Yeah… but at least you got to walk away from it." Sam said, slowly turning around to head back to the house. "But me… I'm still in that old apartment, laying there naked, and waiting on you to come back with the food you promised."

Freddie took a deep sigh. He fucked that up. He fucked that up…. Bad. There really wasn't a week that went by that he didn't think about what he did. Just leaving for 'a bit' and then never coming back… ending things via text. The more he thought about it, the more ashamed he felt for what he did. It was even worse than the debacle with Tori sophomore year.

By the time he had snapped out of his painful regrets and memories, Sam was gone, headed back inside, no doubt, and Freddie, unable to face his future wife with the way he was feeling, decided to actually take that jog through the woods, praying he could clear his mind and conscience at long last.

* * *

KNOCK KNOCK "Robbie?"

The awkward curly haired teen was standing in his bathroom and debated responding to Tori at the door, since it was early enough he could just fake being asleep, but he couldn't do that to someone and it wasn't Tori's fault he felt the way he did.

"Yeah?"

"I… uh… just kinda wanted to make sure you were doing ok."

"Yeah," he called back. "I guess so."

"Well, I saw you freak out at dinner last night after what went on with Trina… and I don't know anything for context, but I'm sorry for whatever happened and-"

Robbie opened the door, his hand towel still practically wrapped on his hand. "You don't need to keep apologizing for Trina, Tori… you've been doing this crap for 2 years."

"I know… but we're friends, Robbie," Tori said, hoping it would earn her an invite in since she felt awkward just standing in the hall. "Right?"

"Yeah," he said, clearly trying to rush this conversation. "Anything else?"

"Well, I haven't seen you in a while… I know Trina mentioned some issues you'd been having recently."

"I really don't know why I tell your sister anything…" he mumbled.

"Me either," Tori said, trying to get a grin from him, but it wasn't happening. "Anyway… I just wanted to check and see if you were still… you know… hearing…"

"Rex?" he asked, starting to look very agitated. "You wanted to check and see if crazy Robbie is still talking to and listening to the nonexistent puppet? Nice, Tori…"

"Robbie… I didn't-" she tried, but Robbie had already shut the door in her face.

"The answer's no, by the way," he said through the wood barrier, before walking back into the bathroom and uncovering his hand, which was bruised and a bit bloodied, and worked to clean it and cover it as best he could, praying no one would notice.

* * *

"So, is this everyone?"

A crowd of people stared back at Amy, separated nicely into three distinct groups: blue, red, and purple, all nodding that they were good to go. Many of which very unhappy with their current pairings. On the blue team, there was Spencer, Tori, Noelle, and Andre. The red team was comprised of Sam, Kelly, Trina, and Beck, while the purple team was made of Carly, Robbie, Tasha, and Cat.

"Alright, so, you all should know how a scavenger hunt works, but in case you don't, each team has a map, and a list of places where they need to go. Awaiting you guys in each place is a series of questions about Freddie and Jade and each team has an 'expert' for each one of them, to make this easier, and the first ones back get… this." Amy held up an envelope that was clearly full of something. "Inside are coupons, discounts, and other free stuff, including a card for free appetizers at Gibby's for one year."

"Yup," Gibby said, standing near Amy, next to Nate, who was abstaining from playing. "That's from me."

"I think they got that," Amy said, smiling and shaking her head and seeing a little annoyance at this whole thing among the teams. "There's also the chance for a walk on role in Jeremiah Shepherd's next film in here… so that's something. If you hate the game, please find the handsome groom and bitch to him, since this was all his idea, but since you are guests of the couple maybe you should just deal with it. Alright, if there are no more questions, comments, or cries of outrage, let's…... go!"

Even without a starter's pistol, which she originally wanted, the teams raced off together to try and be the first ones back for the fairly awesome prize. However, for one person, the only thing that awaited them at the end, was death.

* * *

"You sure took your sweet time this morning," Jade said as she started changing into something more comfortable, hoping to just take the day to relax with her true love while their friends ran around the island for some weird game Freddie had come up with.

"Yeah… Went jogging, and I guess time just got away from me." Freddie really didn't want to get into what had really gone down that morning, and quite frankly, wouldn't if he could help it. "Then I had to make a quick errand."

"Oh really," she said, raising her eyebrow, as if to question him as he slowly undressed from the workout clothes. "And what would that be?"

"You know… just the usual. Checking out the local girls to make sure I'm doing the right thing," he joked.

"Oh go fuck yourself…" she shot back, knowing he was joking, but she wasn't in the mood for him to make light of their relationship. "If you don't want to tell me, it's fine."

"Good," he whispered with that sly grin of his, before kissing her upturned nose. "Curiosity killed the cat, you know."

"Being curious is very different from being suspicious of a notorious flirt and womanizer's absence, Freddie Benson."

"You know you're the only woman for me, Jade West," he fired back, grinning and pulling himself close behind her, kissing her neck, softly suckling the skin as to avoid leaving any marks.

"Mmmmm… You are impossible," Jade murmured as she just let it happen, and as per usual, his touch and kiss erased her doubts and fears, clearing her mind of any and all thought, but sadly, responsibility took over. "We have an errand this morning anyway."

"We?"

"Yeah," she said, pulling away from him. "While you were out, Gibby called us and said we needed to try out the three cake frostings he found."

"I thought we already worked all the cake details before we got here."

"And I thought I told you that the design would work, but the icing ingredients were out of season, so we have to choose something new." Jade was annoyed since she had already mentioned this once since they arrived on the island, and he clearly wasn't listening. "So we've got about ten minutes to get down to the kitchen for when I said we'd meet him."

"Alright, you win," Freddie said, mockingly rolling his eyes. "I'm ready when you are."

* * *

"How does Jade like her coffee?"

Tori looked to Noelle, Spencer, and Andre, who looked back at her, each wondering if she should be the one to answer the trivia question about Jade. She knew the answer was black with two sugars, since she had made the former goth her specific drink more than a few times when she would spend the night. However, answering that would raise the question of how she knew possibly, and Tori was still a bit uncomfortable with the secret area of their relationship for all those years.

"Black with two sugars," she finally managed, earning some minor applause from her team.

"Correct," the older barmaid responded, clearly annoyed that she had been involved with the games and stupid activities of the rich. But after being given $500 bucks for a few minutes of time, she certainly couldn't complain. "Now for the second question: "In elementary school, Freddie took what kind of lessons?"

"Ballet!" Spencer shouted, still laughing at the fact that the closest thing he had to a brother was treated like a daughter by his overbearing mother. "Freddie's mom made him take ballet."

"Yes… here is your ribbon," the barmaid said in the most monotone of voices. "Your next clue will be where forks are used for more than eating."

The four young adults, who were getting along really well, wondered how the other teams were functioning. It seemed like Noelle, who was still friendly, was really feeling out of place without Cat while Tori and Andre had used the time to catch up on so much since their lives rarely intersected much anymore. As the four headed through the bar's door, they brushed past a middle aged woman, who paused briefly.

"Excuse me…" she asked, touching Spencer's shoulder.

"Oh… um, hi…can I… help you?" he started to say, unsure what this could be about. But the woman seemed to have very kind eyes.

"Do you know Steven Shay?"

"Uh… yeah… actually, he's my dad."

The woman smiled and nodded her head. "I thought so…" she said cryptically, before turning back around. "You look exactly like him. Minus all the hippie stuff."

"Oh… thanks, I guess."

"I was sorry to hear what happened to your mother. She was a real celebrity here in the day. Hated that she left you and your father like that."

"Yeah… I actually don't remember much about her being here…" Spencer said, feeling pretty uncomfortable with the situation. "It was over 20 years ago and I barely remember this place."

"Shame…" was all the woman said before she disappeared into the bar, leaving a very confused Spencer to try and gather his thoughts. As he approached his teammates, he could see that Tori and Andre were focused on Noelle.

"You guys ok?"

"I'm sad…" the dark haired girl said, partially reminding Spencer of his sister when she would want to do something but needed his permission.

"About what?" he asked, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm tired, and out of place, and I miss my Kitty Cat…"

Spencer almost said something but then realized she meant the girl and not the pet. "I'm sorry… you know," he said, taking a deep breath and trying to remove the older woman from his mind, "the purple team should be coming around here pretty soon. You could wait for her here, or you could cut through the forest and see if you can see her at the stop we had to make by that tree."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Andre said, nodding his head slightly. There was no question in his mind that Noelle didn't quite fit with the rest of his friends, but she was certainly nice.

"And you can take the map since I know the way back to the inn," Spencer added, trying to play the big brother to everyone like always.

"Ok… I guess that settles it," Noelle says, looking at the scary looking woods before her, calling back before disappearing . "If I die in the wilderness, tell Cat I love her."

The comment was meant to be a joke, but after what the old woman said, Spencer was a little put off by the whole situation. "Let's get this thing over with, guys…" he said, leading the way as Tori and Andre followed without much of a thought.

* * *

"So, that's the butter-cream. I don't hate it, but it's so normal and average… I kinda want our cake to have a special-ness to it."

Jade looked at her fiancée as he mindlessly nodded to her question, clearly miles away from what they were doing. Freddie reached for the next one which was pinkish, and took a tiny bite.

"And that's the strawberry period discharge," she said, to test him just as he got the taste, before looking at Jade with a pissed look and spitting it out. "Just testing you."

"I don't care…" he said, scraping his tongue with his teeth, "That was disgusting, Jade… also, that's not remotely my favorite."

As Freddie pushed the strawberry cream cheese cupcake away, Jade got the last one, and decided to try and get his attention. Using her finger, she scooped a bit off the chocolate iced and wiped it on the side of her pale neck.

"I have a feeling this might be my favorite…" Freddie said, with a renewed interest in this task. He wasted no time kissing and suckling her neck, allowing a little more pressure than in the bedroom, happy to clean her of the tasty icing.

"I think it might be mine too, but I think we should double check," Jade said, reaching back to the cupcake and scooping more and streaking it in the valley of her supple breasts, showing just a bit of the chocolate from the minimal cleave her shirt allowed.

Freddie smirked and picked his beautiful soon-to-be wife up by her sides and lowered her to sit on a table behind them. "Don't want to get your shirt dirty, do we?" he asked, as she puffed her bottom lip and shook her head.

Freddie began undressing her by pulling her shirt over her head bringing her glorious chest into view, the heavenly orbs held up by the grace of God just as much as the expensive brassiere. Lightly pulling her soft pillows apart, he snaked his tongue into the incredible canyon, and licked up and down so he wouldn't miss a single taste of the icing skin combo, that, were it possible to bottle, would be the flavor for every dessert he could ever eat.

"Mmmmm…" Jade managed, gripping his head tightly to push him deep into the valley so he could clean her body, wondering if she should just offer herself up to him right here and now in the kitchen where anyone could come by the window, or worse Gibby could come over from the inn side and catch them. As Freddie's hands rolled along her thighs, she felt that she had her answer.

* * *

"Nobody gives a shit what you think, you two bit druggie skank!"

Kelly Kennedy was rarely on the defensive side of a fight or an argument, but her team happened to have two of the most opinionated and aggressive women on the island. She had come a long way since college, stopping nearly all her substance abuse, save for smoking up once a week for her relaxation, and of course drinking. Plus her anger had toned down quite a bit, but as she faced down Trina and Sam, who spoke, who were just as much on her case as each other, this was an absolute nightmare.

Then there was Beck who had done nothing the entire time, callously going along with whatever everyone wanted to do, and not once defending her, even though he described her as his best friend.

Needless to say, the thin blonde was pissed.

"Dude, I don't have to take that from some heifer on her period," she fired back. "You two have been nothing but complete ass-hats to me from, like, minute one."

"At least Sam could be useful," Trina chimed in, "If we had an eating challenge or an angst competition… what the fuck do you do?"

"Fuck you," Sam fired back as Beck just shook his head at the catfight.

The handsome man said a brief bye before just walking off, knowing they couldn't hear him anyway. And then it hit him why he would be so miserable on this team: He had slept with all three of them.

Back in the fight, Kelly was so close to throwing a fist, but instead used her anger to bolt into the woods, leaving Sam and Trina to argue over how to get through the challenge.

The thin blonde raced through the woods, trying to remember where the inn was located and cursing at herself for not grabbing the map from those twats.

* * *

As Noelle headed down the trail, she could swear she heard screaming, which she considered intervening into in case Cat was there, but from the sound of it, it was Sam and Trina, who were on the other team.

The calm raven haired author headed deeper and deeper into the woods, following the path, looking at the sights, and then comparing them to what was on the map in front of her, starting to get more nervous. Though, if she had been paying attention to the ground, she would have really had something to worry about.

Noelle took a step, and instantly felt a strong tug on her ankles as the noose trap, built with thick rope, tightened and pulled her weight over her head and before she even realized it, she was now completely upside down. Or the forest was upside down… one of the two. Her map, keys, phone, purse, and everything else that could fall from her form, hit the ground, depleting any chance she had at resources.

"Hello?!" she called out, as loud as she could, hoping the girls were still nearby enough to come help her. "I'm upside down! Please! Can someone please help me?!"

But there was nothing but silence as she slowly swung back and forth like a pendulum, waiting for the end, and regretting every moment of her life that had led to this moment.

Except for Cat of course.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccckkkkkkk" she muttered, quickly consigning herself to this fate.

* * *

"So…" Freddie asked, pulling his pants back up from around his ankles, "What was the name of that chocolate icing again?"

"Sensual midnight fudge," Jade said, trying not to laugh at the ridiculous title.

"Well, it wasn't lying…" Freddie joked, adjusting his shirt before stroking Jade's arms as she gathered her clothes. He couldn't help but marvel at her body in all her forms of undress. She had barely gained any weight since college on most of her body and where the growth had occurred, in her succulent curves, he certainly wasn't going say a negative word.

Her goth appearance slowly dissipated over the past few years, and long gone were the piercings, the overuse of makeup, and dyed and colored hair bits. She was now a beautiful almost natural brunette that appeared so innocent and warm, despite Freddie knowing her true innocence behind closed doors. Seeing this sweet woman he would be life-bound to in a couple days, it was hard to believe she was called a 'jank' on a regular basis in school.

Once she was dressed again, Freddie stood behind her and wrapped his arms around his lover, holding her tight, his fingertips stroking where her shirt met her pants, toying with her exposed stomach flesh.

"Mmmm… what are you doing?"

"I can't hold the love of my life?" he whispered back.

"No… you can do that…" Jade spun around to face him. "I mean… we just had sex, and you're already starting that party up again?"

"I'm not really trying to start something." Freddie rubbed her lower back softly as he moved his face close to hers. "We aren't really in bed, so I can't cuddle with you in sheets right now… can't I have this?"

"Freddie, your fingertips are taunting my ass… I'm pretty sure your body is starting something even if you don't know it."

He smirked and kissed the top of her head as his hands moved upwards to a much more innocuous position. "Better?"

"Not really… but that's kinda something I wanted to talk to you about."

Freddie stared back at Jade feeling very uncomfortable and nervous all of a sudden, but he held her close, looking deep into her beautiful and soft eyes. "Ok?"

"I was thinking this would be the last time we… you know… until we get married. The wait will make it even more special… is that ok?"

"Baby," Freddie said, stroking her hair behind her ears. "I think it's a little late for you to be wearing white… don't you think?"

'Asshole," she fired back, pulling from him and play punching him in the arm. "I thought the symbolism would be nice."

"I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but it's only a couple days away before we get married."

"So you're saying me putting this on lockdown wouldn't drive you nuts?" Jade said, grabbing his hands and putting them on her stomach and moving upwards whispering intently. "Not being able to caress my tits, grab my ass, or… mmmhmmm… fuck me."

"Alright, you win… I'm good to go again," Freddie said, pulling his hand back so he could start to undo his pants.

"Nuh uh uhhh," she grinned, wagging her finger. "Not until we're married, Mr. Benson." Jade backed out from the kitchen slowly, smiling as she watched Freddie scramble to get his pants on, calling back at her flustered fiancée in a taunting voice, "Be sure to let Gibby know which cake frosting you want…"

* * *

As Freddie trudged back up the stairs to his room at the inn, where he found that Jade had actually moved much of her stuff to Tori's room, making it clear that this 'chastity experiment' was something she was truly serious about. Freddie looked into his now half empty room, and felt incredibly alone. It was a feeling he rarely felt anymore these days, but when he did feel it, he had to wonder if he had abandonment issues because he couldn't help seeking out ways to alleviate the feeling.

He considered calling Sam, but his guilt wouldn't allow it, and Carly had already scolded him today for making her friend cry. He had no idea where Tasha was, and perhaps that was for the best since she was incredibly attractive and tended to be a bit crazy at times. Gibby was hard at work in the kitchen, and Spencer was too busy with his daughter. Which only left one close person that he could go to- his mother

Freddie marched from his room to his nearby mother's, and before knocking, he could hear that she was on the phone with someone. Nothing new there of course. Marissa Benson was the reason why unlimited minutes were created, and she rarely stopped talking to someone at a given time.

However, as he listened on, he heard her call the other person a name that made his stomach absolutely turn: Sam.

Hearing that the girl who had completely turned his day upside down was on the phone with his overbearing mother, the woman who sabotaged his relationship with Sam out of pure jealousy and being stuck up, made Freddie's skin crawl and made him want to listen in further. Marissa was hardly a fan of Jade and spent a number of hours on the phone with her son trying to get him to call this insanity off, move back home and never come here.

It was pretty clear how that worked out.

Eavesdropping as carefully as he could, he tried to gather as much data about this particular one sided phone call as he possibly could.

"Don't worry about this morning, Samantha… No, I get that… well, he just needs more time, and that's what this is all about… My little Freddie doesn't really understand what he wants, and I think you're the only one to get through to him…. Then we need to make sure that's obvious and remove any other distractions… No, Samantha, you're the one who came to me, I'm just the one who made you the offer… well, the offer stands as is, and I don't think you want to know what would happen if you if you don't get my baby boy away from that gutter trash tramp…. I don't care, Sam, I asked you to do a job so do it."

Freddie's blood was absolutely boiling as he listened, and would kill to be able to hear what Sam was saying. Some of the lines sounded like Sam was trying to leave this thing alone, while others seemed like she was going along with it. But the real takeaway was clear: his mother was trying to fuck things up for him, yet again.

Loneliness now the least of his problems, Freddie sulked back to his room, and locked himself into the darkness, and awaited someone who wasn't a terrible human being to come see him.

* * *

Back in the woods, an upside down petite dark haired girl swung motionless with the wind. As if waking up from a dream, she opened her eyes and let out a sigh.

"Yeah… still upside down. Still alone."

Noelle tried her best to swing a bit more to a nearby branch so she could focus again, but she just didn't have the strength. Still, she kept on and on, with the fire of seeing Cat.

Just when it seemed like all hope was lost, she heard the crunching footsteps of a visitor.

"Hello?!" she called out, trying to spin around. "I'm upside down!"

"I can see that."

Noelle spun around and came face to face… or really face to breast with Tori's obnoxious sister Trina. It wasn't that Trina was a terrible person, but she was incredibly annoying and it was insane to think that she came from the same DNA pile as the sweet brunette she had spent time with. Trina had been around a bit during that time as well, but usually because Cat was too nice about including people. And now she was her savior.

"I stepped into a trap… I don't know how long I've been up here, but I could-"

"Ok…" Trina said, cutting her off. "That's crazy…"

"Yeah… I think there's a rope or a weight for balance somewhere around here."

"I'm… going to…" Trina said taking a look around the empty woods for something to help the trapped girl. "I'm gonna go grab some help… maybe the others can help."

"Wait, at least-"

'Oooh… I was looking for a map. Thanks, N…" Trina stopped as she actually couldn't remember what the girl's name was. "Nnnn..atalie?"

"It's Noelle," she sighed with a huff. "Before you go, can you-"

"K thanks… I'll try and get some help. Bye…"

Within a few seconds, there was nothing to be heard, and Noelle was all alone, left to stare at the slowly sinking sun, and praying that someone would come and help her. Preferably someone who wasn't useless and/or a total bitch.

* * *

The sun had nearly set as Robert West sat on the porch of the inn, watching the wonderful evening, with his wife by his side. Though to be fair, she was serving much more as a prop and a waitress than an actual person. The couple looked out at the workers, along with some of the guests, like Spencer, Col. Shay, and Nate, gathered materials to throw into a pile for the night's celebratory bonfire.

Personally, the concept of just standing around as a fire burned seemed utterly droll to the Wests, but this was apparently really important to their daughter, so they were happy to oblige. And it hardly cost a dime which was something neither one could argue against.

"Have you spoken to Mr. Oliver about how it's going with getting Jadelyn to snap out of this?" Robert asked, reaching into his pocket for a cigar.

"Yeah," Mrs. West said with a sigh. "He's not sure if it's any of his business to try and ruin what she and Freddie have."

"Then he needs to make it his business," he said, through gritted teeth as he lit the stogie. "I'm not paying him until he puts an end to this ridiculous charade."

"I know…" Ruby huffed, looking back into the inn where Marissa was helping Gibby with setting up the pieces for dinner. "Can you imagine actually having to be related to that inept and lower class overbearing woman?"

"It's no wonder her boy came out as such a socio-economic weakling."

Ruby was about to say something else, when a shadow was cast over them, belonging to a tall man with graying hair, but still intimidating demeanor.

"Ah, Steven!" Nice of you to join us… let the young people do the work."

"Never been my style, Robert," he said as he sat down next to the rich couple, tossing a no thank you as West offered him a cigar. "Quit when Spencer was born and never smoked again. Appreciate the offer though."

"Of course," West said, turning a bit to hide his rolled eyes. "Seems like your boy seems settled into being a husband and father. I'm sure that's some relief."

"Haha… more than you know," he said, looking out at the field. "He's the most important guy in my life, you know. Good kid, and talented like you wouldn't believe."

"I've seen his stuff," Ruby added, before Robert gave her a look for getting involved in the conversation.

"Have you now? Good deal…" Shay took a sip from his water bottle on his hip. "Spencer's my boy, but Freddie's like a second son to me. Since the day I met him and his mother, I just knew he was meant for great things and he's a smart, stellar kid."

"Of course…" Robert said, trying not to be sarcastic. "We're overjoyed our daughter found someone like him to be with."

"That's great. It's important for families to get along especially when marriage sorta forces it together. I'd hate to think that a family would use secretive and underhanded means to hurt or harm someone that their loved one loved. That's just sickening."

"Of course, Steven…" Robert asked, raising his eyebrows a bit. "Is there a point to all this."

"I spent decades in the Air Force because I knew the importance of protecting and fighting for my country. And now that I'm home, I extend that same importance to my family, at all costs. And Freddie's part of that. I just wanted you to know how much I care about your future son-in-law. I mean, for a while there, with Carly, I thought he might have been mine one day… which would have thrilled me, but it is what it is."

"What a wonderful speech and thinly veiled threat. We thank you sooo much for your service, of course."

It was clear that Robert West, had been intimidated and threatened by some of the worst of the worst, was not going to blink in the face of the Colonel, and his sarcasm showed it.

"Just letting you know, Robert," Col. Shay said simply, before walking back towards the field and assisting the workers and young men, not once looking back at the disgusting aristocracy that watched him from several yards away.

* * *

Once the bonfire started, everyone couldn't help but flock to the shindig, even the Wests who were keeping a cautious distance. Close by the growing flames were the happy couple, sitting fairly close to one another, but thanks to their agreement, they wouldn't touch. Which was a real shame because the fire brought back so many memories of that night they first truly met. A bonfire party, much like this one, had led to a short walk, confessions, and comfort. And within hours of witnessing the flames flicker, the couple had consummated their newfound love, and everything just fell into place.

Jade and Freddie weren't touching, but they did share enough glances and smiles that they really didn't have to. They were just happy that everyone was here, and seemed to be having a pretty swell time.

The purple team had won the contest of course, since the red team had completely fallen apart and the blue team had just given up looking for stuff after a while. Robbie was in a rare good mood and was having fun around the fire, and chatting up Carly as she reflected on what life at the news station was like. Of course, Robbie misread the moment and had an embarrassing near kiss with the former web star, but after a few minutes of awkwardness, they managed to press through and spent much of the evening talking to one another.

Tasha, on the other hand, was doing quite a bit of talking herself, but with very different motivations. The model was cuddled up tightly to the strong arms of Nate, who was more than happy to enjoy the incredible beauty. Nate knew that this girl might not be the most altruistic in getting close to him, pushing for that role in his dad's movie, but there was just something endearing about her that he just couldn't deny.

Despite being on the winning team, the saddest person at the party had to be the normally bouncy redhead, who was now frowning and staring into the fire.

"You ok?" Tori said, as she and Andre approached, with Trina lagging behind.

"No…" she said in a pouting manner. "I can't find Noey… she was on your team, right? She wouldn't have just left me, right?"

"Yeah… she went looking for you after we left the bar place," Andre said, thinking back to the moment a few hours before. "We gave her a map and everything since we had Spencer to kinda guide us."

"So she was all alone?!" Cat bemoaned, and started freaking out. "And you-"

'Oh fuck."

The three former Hollywood Arts students simultaneously looked back at the eldest Vega sister. Each with a different expression. Cat reacted to the swear word of course, while Andre felt confused, and Tori could just feel that her sister had done something awful.

"Trina…" Tori said, trying to coax something out of her.

"Ohmygod… I'm so sorry. I was supposed to come back with some help, but then I got caught up reading a magazine and then I took a shower, and-"

Completely out of character, Cat jumped at Trina, her hands around her throat. "Explain yourself!" she said with her high pitched voice, and if it wasn't so adorable, it would be pretty frightening.

"I'll take you guys to her… just get her off me!" Trina screamed, now getting the attention of all those around them.

"I'm gonna go grab Spencer," Tori said, as she pulled Cat off of her sister, despite being infuriated, though less than surprised, that Trina had done such a horrible thing.

In a few seconds, Tori, Cat, Spencer, and Andre were led by Trina through the woods, each brandishing their phones for light as the trudged through the forest. As they walk, the see old cars, junk, and some other animal traps.

"Watch your step, guys… if Noelle managed to trip one of these in the daylight, then we could easily fall into these holes or triggers at night.

"You bet," Andre said, trying to match Spencer's steps as best he could. "I mean, outside of Looney Tunes, who would even build this stuff?"

"Hunters use this stuff all the time, my dad told me when I was a kid. We were supposed to go hunting together, but we didn't for some reason."

"I don't like hunters," Cat said, softly. "One time a hunter shot my brother because he went hiking in a deer costume."

"Why would a person do that?" Spencer asked, turning to look at the redhead.

"I don't know… my brother is kinda weird."

"That's an understatement," Tori and Andre said, almost simultaneously.

"Let's just hurry up…" Spencer said, focused on the path in front of him. "I hate leaving Amy and Savanna for very long, and these woods just creep me out. Always feel like someone's watching us."

* * *

Just out of sight from the bonfire, Kelly stood and watched what everyone was up to at the party. There were a few missing, it looked like, but she could definitely see Beck and that he was putting down yet another drink. The romantic feelings were all but gone, but she still cared deeply for him and he was working on his sobriety, but clearly something was wrong if he was drinking so carelessly.

Then there was the stupid cowboy asshole that she was almost positive had tried to poison her back in college, but she could never prove it. It had taken a little while to figure out, but it was generally accepted that if something happened to Tori, her backwoods guardian angel was sure to swoop in. But now, he was locking lips with that slutty model chick that Kelly had met a couple times, but never really spoken to.

The blonde's attention was quickly shifted to the far more popular blonde on the island, and one of the people she blamed for getting lost in the first place. Kelly's mind thrashed about with revenge plans and how to make girls like Sam and Trina suffer for the way they made people feel, and she had all but figured it out when she found her way back to the inn thanks to the smoke, just in time for the party.

Kelly had spent the last couple hours just trudging through the woods, in search of the inn, and have even found a cabin in the dark forest, but there was no one home. Part of her felt bad for breaking into the place, but once she realized there wasn't any food or drink there, she left it behind.

The resident of the cabin, however, had seen her go in and out of the secret cabin and knew she needed to be dealt with while no one was around, just in case the thin blonde had seen anything.

Before she even realized it, Kelly had a cloth over her face, and naturally breathed deep in fright, sending the chloroform through her system much faster, and within a matter of seconds, the angry California native was still on the ground, in deep unconsciousness, completely unaware that her scrawny body was being dragged through the woods.

* * *

"Noelle?!" Cat called out, looking for her girlfriend, and on the verge of a breakdown. "If you can hear me, please say something!"

Trina had taken them to two different locations now, neither one correct as to where she had left the poor writer. They felt like they were miles into the woods after over twenty minutes of marching with careful steps, on the lookout for more traps. Tori had to go to the bathroom and had headed back to the inn, letting them know that she'd tell everyone else about Noelle.

"There!" Andre shouted, as his flashlight caught something, and rushed over to find that he had in fact found the poor dark haired girl, whose purple face he quickly lifted while Spencer followed closely and found the weighted rope in a few seconds. He used his pocket knife to cut through as quick as he could as Andre held her so she wouldn't just fall.

"Is she ok?! She looks bad!" Cat said, freaking out at the sight. "She's going to be ok, right?!"

"Just hang on, Cat…" Andre said, feeling more and more weight as he knew Noelle would come down in a second. "Let's just get her down, and then we'll see."

Like magic, Andre held the full bodyweight of the petite girl in his hands as he slowly lowered her to the ground. Cat pushed past him and quickly kissed the raven haired girl, as if this was a fairy tale and she would awaken from such a thing.

Spencer put his hand on her shoulder. "Cat, I don't think that-"

"C… Cat?" a weak voice said, and all four of them gathered around Noelle. "Kitty Cat?"

"It's me, baby… it's me. I'm here," the redhead, said, kissing her again, lifting her head a bit as the color slowly drained away.

"You missed it," she said back with a soft smile. "I was upside down."

"We saw that… we got you down though," Spencer said, still not believing that Noelle would just be fine after hanging for that long. "I think you're going to be ok."

"Ok… tell Trina I said thank you," Noelle said before slipping away into blackness before being shaken a bit by Cat.

"No sleeping, Noey."

"Awww…" Noelle said, still completely lost in her head.

"Let's get her back to the campfire, get her warmed up, and sitting up," Spencer said, bending to pick the girl up onto her feet. "Can you walk?"

"Yup," Noelle said, as he let her go, and nearly fell face first to the ground, barely saved by Andre who steadied her. "Sorry…"

"It's fine, girl," Andre shot back. "Just try and walk with us… you're gonna be ok."

As they walked, Cat would randomly start to walk backwards to keep an eye on her girlfriend just to make sure she was ok. By the time, they emerged from the woods, Noelle was coherent, but still incredibly weak with a splitting headache. The friends propped their injured friend up as Cat snuggled close to her by the fire, and just embraced until Noelle felt like bed, and from that point, for everyone at the party, it was a really nice and peaceful evening.

* * *

A half mile into the woods, far from where Noelle was found and rescued, Kelly woke up, and realized she wasn't in the forest any longer, but somewhere that was pitch black and cramped. Moving a bit, she also realized that she was laying down in an enclosed space, and with a touch, felt hard plastic all around her.

Grabbing her lighter from her back pocket, Kelly smelled just to make sure there were no gasses or anything, and then lit it. The orange light lit up her surroundings and she quickly knew that she was in trouble as it looked like she was in a barrel of some sort. As she shifted trying to look and feel for any way out, she wondered how she could have gotten into this thing. But as her light caught a note, her blood went cold as she shut off the flame:

**FIRE USES A LOT OF OXYGEN**

Kelly began to scratch and punch at the surrounding plastic, desperate to escape, and being careful of her breathing. Just when she thought she was making some headway, she heard a soft sound from what she quickly comprehended as the top.

"Help me!" she called out. "I'm stuck, and I can't get out!"

But with each few seconds, another plop sound happened, and it sounded a bit like someone was throwing pebbles at it.

The sign had made Kelly freak out, but the sudden reality that she was being buried, sent her into overdrive.

"LET ME OUT OF HERE, YOU SICK PIECE OF SHIT!" she cried out. "I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU, AND RIP YOUR BALLS OFF YOU FUCKER! YOU HEAR ME YOU SHITSTAIN?!"

The dirt shoveling stopped for a few moments as Kelly breathed a sigh of relief, praying that she got through to whoever was doing this to her.

"Now, please, LET-"

She was cut off as she heard the splash of water over the dirt and there was a familiar scent, that reminded her of her father who worked construction as a… Oh, shit, she thought. That's not dirt… it's cement.

"FOR GOD'S SAKE... PLEASE STOP! HELP ME... PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU! WHATEVER I DID, I'M SORRY! JUST DON'T LET ME DIE."

Kelly pounded and scratched and clawed at the barrel until her nails were gone and her fingers were bleeding, crying out for help, but no one could hear her. Finally, she got one finger through the plastic, but it was stuck in the hardening goop, and her head was pounding and she couldn't see anything. And as everything slowly started to spin, everything got quiet. With a cough and a scratch, Kelly Kennedy breathed her last breath while her assailant covered the spot in dirt before taking the wheelbarrow, running over her finger and crushing it, and taking the supplies back to the abandoned shack, all while whistling a jaunty tune.

* * *

**Whew… I think I might have been a little too hard on Kelly. I feel like I poured on her punishment a little too thick. And she had the killer at her fingertips too… Alright, I'm done with the sick jokes abotu scratching another one off... I can feel your annoyance hardening. I feel like the Cryptkeeper if I do too many of those. I really hope everyone enjoyed, and I know just as many questions have been raised as answered, which is always nice for a mystery. Can't wait to hear what everyone thought and I look forward to reading all the reviews and comments. Any idea who the killer might be? Or who might be next? Thanks for reading as always. And if you aren't reading OneHorseShay's The Dark Dame, you should be. It is an excellent mashup of of the Schneiderverse and DC comics, and I'm loving it, so therefore you should too. Hoping to start my next story soon (which has far fewer barrells, death puns, and murders), and after that chapter, we will return to the Island in a couple weeks.**


	4. Swish

**Only a couple days later than I had originally planned, which isn't too bad for my schedule. I have gotten a lot of questions and comments about certain relationships and how they function or happened in this AU/Future story. I hope that everyone will be pleased with this chapter and that it answers some of those questions.**

* * *

Carly Shay had never felt more relaxed than she felt at this moment, floating in the pool at the inn, just taking in all the sounds and smells of the surrounding nature. Her best male friend was going to be married to the girl of his dreams in just two days and there was just something pleasant about that, and it drove her to seek out what she truly wanted in life.

"Is it cold?" a voice asked.

Carly opened her eyes to see Tori, in a modest blue bikini standing over the pool, looking down at her.

"Not really… actually feels nice since its kind of a warm day."

"Good," she said with a grin.

Before Carly could ask why she was smiling, she heard the rush of footsteps and saw Robbie, Andre, and Spencer jump around her, each one covering her with a respectable splash.

"Ah," she screamed out playfully as the guys laughed around her, and just when she realized that Spencer wasn't coming up, she felt his hands push from beneath her and launch her into the air before splashing back down.

As Carly recovered, she saw that Freddie was also there, standing next to Tori, dressed up very nicely, which explained why he wasn't jumping in too like the rest of the guys. She saw the two talk for a second, and he got close as if to tell her a secret, when his stance shifted and pushed the aspiring star into the less than peaceful waters.

"Jerk," she shouted as she fell, much to his delight.

Trina wasn't too far behind them and took her place sitting on the edge as the more fun loving guests played around, sloshing the light blue water.

Several feet from the pool, Amy and Savanna stood, watching the commotion and laughing as Spencer and Carly were setting up for a chicken fight against Tori and Andre. The mother and daughter were soon joined by a broad shouldered teen in a plaid shirt, who was nursing a sore arm, and his night-long companion who was wearing a fairly slinky one piece bathing suit.

As Nate stood back and admired Tasha's swaying hips, who was as sexually gifted as she was beautiful, he caught that Amy was trying to shield her daughter's eyes from the sight before Savanna started cracking up as her father was purposely trying to mess with her aunt Carly.

"Mornin' ladies," Nate said softly.

"Good morning," Amy said politely, but Savanna didn't even respond, clearly a little afraid of the large young man. "I had no idea that you and…"

"Tasha," he quickly filled in for her.

"Yeah… I had no idea that you guys were… an item."

"We… weren't. Until last night at least," Nate said, as he put his hands in his pockets, feeling a tad uncomfortable discussing such a thing with a mother. "Just kinda hit things off at the fire last night, and didn't quite want the night to end."

"Sounds about right," Amy said, with a smirk, trying not to think of how many nights she had done the same thing with guys that were hanging around her.

"I gotta ask, miss… How do you manage having a kid, and then having a kid for a husband?"

"Wow… that's kinda direct, man."

"I apologize… just figured it was something worth askin' about."

"We just make due… I'm just as fun loving as he is, but he's just more comfortable in social situations. Him being a kid is what I love about him, really. And it makes him a really great dad."

"I bet…" Nate said, trying not to flex his arm too much as it was overexerted enough as it was. He had planned on asking her something else, but was a bit too distracted as he watched Tasha climb, dripping wet from the pool, before jumping off the board back in.

* * *

"You about ready?"

Freddie was still buttoning his shirt up as he heard Jade's voice at the door. It hadn't even been 24 hours and he already hated this 'purity' time between them. He had tossed and turned all night, feeling so completely alone that he ended up taking a walk around the grounds.

"Just about, babe."

"Good… you know how much my dad hates when we're late to something."

"Oh, I know that all too well, Jade," he shot back, a bit more acidic than he had originally meant.

"Look," she said, before opening the door to come in, "I know you and my dad don't get along very well, but he just wants to make sure you're good for me."

"Like he thought Alex was?"

"Freddie…" she said, her eyes narrowing. "That was pretty cheap. And we promised that after what happened with him a couple years ago, we would never talk about him again."

"I'm sorry…" he said, reaching out to hug her, but she slid away. "I hate this," he muttered.

"I know… I don't like it either, but I think it means more if we do this. Our whole relationship has been filled with us moving too fast and focusing on the physical stuff more than anything else."

"I know… and I get it… I just don't like it."

Jade smiled softly at Freddie before leaning over and kissing his lips with a soft peck. "That's the last one you're getting until Sikowitz gives us the signal."

"I'm going to get you back for this," Freddie said, slipping his nice shoes on, since his usual ones were covered in mud, finally ready to go.

"Good… you have a couple days to figure out all the fun ways how."

* * *

The couple found their way down to the front lawn where the Wests stood next to each other looking up at the sky, and Robert was holding a sizable rifle. A loud CLANK later, a disk flew through the air before West took aim, and turned it to dust.

"Nice of you two to finally join us," he said, his nose practically in space, he was sticking it up so far.

"We're only a couple minutes late, Dad…"

"I can't imagine why…" he said, rolling his eyes.

"It was my fault, sir," Freddie said, doing his best to put up a good front. "I couldn't find my keys."

"I hope you keep better track of Jade than you do your other belongings," he shot back, before shooting another clay pigeon from the sky.

"Well, I would never consider your daughter as one of my possessions… nor would she ever allow herself to be called that."

Hmmm…" West grunted, unable to argue with that particular point.

"Did we ever tell you that your father was a national champion, Jadelyn?" Mrs. West said, taking a drink from what seemed to be an ever present glass of liquor.

"A couple times," Jade said sharply, quickly getting fed up with all of this. "Why are we even here?"

"We're here," Robert said, clearing his throat and lowering the gun, "Because I'm spending a lot of money on something and if I'm spending my cash for someone else's benefit, I want to know its worth it."

"The f-" Jade started to ask, when Freddie put his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm guessing you want to see if I can shoot those because it will prove that I'm worthy?"

"Something like that," he said. "Or it's a start at least. Impress me."

Freddie grumpily took the rifle from his future father-in-law's hands and tried to get used to the weight. He pointed it up to the sky and tried his best to adapt to the feel of the gun. "Alright," he said with a sigh as he prepared.

The machine fired up, and within a few seconds, the first disk was launched upwards, and almost effortlessly he nailed it, earning a clap from his true love. The second and third came pretty quickly afterward and Freddie managed to hit both of them, obliterating one and taking a good chunk out of the other.

The fourth one however, was a different story. He took aim, and knew he should take the shot, but as his eye darted to his future in laws, Freddie suddenly didn't give a shit what these people thought of him. So he intentionally missed, reacting way too quickly to the failure than he should have, signaling to Jade that he had thrown it. The Wests however were too busy gloating and sneering to catch such a small detail.

"You did good baby," Jade said softly, pulling him away from her parents who just rolled their eyes. "Let's go upstairs to your room and talk, ok?"

Freddie just nodded as Jade led him inside the inn and up to the room they used to share, as the former technical producer tried to calm his nerves.

* * *

Back in the pool, the young adults are still splashing and having a good time, and thanks to Andre's idea for a floating beer cooler, they had drinks readily available. Trina was taking a long sip of a beer when her eyes caught the inn door opening revealing two people she really didn't want to see.

Cat, who was wearing a bright blue bikini that might as well have been painted on, was leading Noelle out into the sun so she could sit around the pool, and Cat could join in the fun of the others. Noelle was definitely not dressed for the pool experience as she wore a sundress and large sunglasses, to cover her still sunken eyes.

"Surprised to see them out this morning," Andre said. "Didn't figure we'd see them at all today since they were screaming half the night."

"Screaming?" Robbie said, looking over and wondering what could have happened. "Were they fighting or id they get hurt or did-"

"Nah, man…" Andre said with a grin, taking another swig of beer. "It was the happy kind of screaming."

"Happy?" the curly haired outcast cocked his head as it wasn't making sense to him.

"They were going at it like howler monkeys," Tori added. "Jade and I were awake for way too much of it."

Robbie blushed a bit, ashamed that he had completely missed what should have been brutally obvious. Trina had remained mostly silent, truly feeling bad for what she had done to that poor girl, forgetting her in the woods.

As Cat jumped in the pool, the guys couldn't help but gawk at her flawless figure, even if they knew that it would take a chromosome change to get her attention. As the perky redhead swam past Trina, clearly ignoring her, the eldest Vega couldn't help but feel bad since Cat had always been nice to her, even when she didn't deserve it.

Trina swam over to the edge of the pool where Noelle was seated, and perched herself on the side so she could look Noelle in the eye… or as close as she could get with those glasses.

"Hey… Noelle… look," she started, and Noelle wouldn't even look at her. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for, you know… the whole upside down and forgetting you thing. My bad…"

Noelle just shook her head and looked up at the sun, wondering how long she could relax here without the fear of getting burned.

When she realized that a sorry was not going to cut it, Trina swam back to the group, but the look that Cat was giving her made her feel even more out of place. So, she did the only thing that she felt like she should, and climbed from the pool, dried off, and headed inside for some rest.

* * *

A few doors down from where Trina planned to lay her head, Freddie was pacing the floor of his room while Jade lay on what used to be their bed.

"You might as well just tell me what the fuck is going on."

Freddie looked over at Jade and debated how to respond to her request. Part of him really just wanted her to leave so he could lose his cool in peace, but he had spent enough time away from her and losing her for any reason was not something he wanted. "I'm just thinking, babe, it's ok."

"You'll forgive me if I think that's a crock of shit…" Jade said, sitting and narrowing her eyes at her lover, but the worry in his eyes told her what she needed to know. "Just tell me if you're ok, baby."

"Yeah… but I need to know something, and you need to be honest," Freddie stopped and looked down at her, looking more serious than she had seen in a long time.

"Ok…"

"If you had to choose me or your family… really your family's money… you would choose me, right?"

"You haven't heard?" she fired back coyly.

"What?"

Jade stood up, looking a bit dizzy for a moment, to look Freddie in the eyes as she reached for a slip of paper from his nightstand.

"You see this, Freddie? This is our bulletin, something that every single guest is going to receive, so that they will know that all this is about you and me. Together forever. That's what I care about. My parents can eat a dick for all I care… I have you Freddie, and no force on earth is going to change that."

Freddie grabbed his fiancée tightly, not giving a damn about their chastity deal, and just held her, inhaling her scent and burying his face in her neck as she enjoyed being pressed against his pecs. Almost absent-mindedly, she began to plant soft kisses on his chest leading up to his chin, and then let herself enjoy tasting his lips once more.

The kiss only made Freddie hold Jade tighter, until he felt her knees weaken a bit.

"You ok?" he asked, supporting her weight as she seemed to have some trouble.

"Yeah…" she said, stroking his arms as he supported her. "Just dizzy today, I guess. Must have been the lack of sleep kicking at me. Maybe I just got up too fast."

Freddie had his doubts and wondered if something was truly wrong, but before he could say anything there was a knock at the door. He rushed over to open it, revealing a stout woman in a maid's uniform.

"Excuse me," she said softly. "But do you know who is staying in the room down the hall?"

She was pointing at Kelly's room, which Freddie only knew because Tori had mentioned about why she would be at this occasion.

"I think I know who is staying there…" Freddie said, wondering what this was all about, "but she's not really a friend of mine. Her name is Kelly, I think."

"Oh ok… if you see her, you need to tell her that she's going to have to send payment for all the stuff in there."

"What?!" he said, in shock, moving past the maid to check the room for himself. The maid cautiously opened the door and revealed a completely trashed room- the bed unmade and torn up, trash all over the floor, and muddy shoeprints all over the carpet. "This is ridiculous…"

And then Freddie's eye caught a yellow piece of paper pinned to the wall, no doubt something else that left a mark.

-I hate this place, so I'm leaving. Not sure why I came anyway.

There was something off about the note, and it was clearly written in a hurry, but he knew so little about the thin blonde, but there was something familiar, even amongst the rush, about the handwriting on the note.

"I will let her friend Beck know… he probably knows how to keep up with her," Freddie said, clenching his fist a bit at the thought of Beck.

"Yes, sir," the small maid said before she shut the door behind them and Freddie headed back to his room to check on Jade.

To his surprise she was not only standing, but seemed like she was getting ready for something.

"I just got a text that I need to go get my dress fitted, along with a couple other things so I need to jet."

"Oh… ok… Do you want to know the deal with the room?" he asked, a little hurt that she was just taking off.

"Is it Kelly's?"

"Yeah…"

"Then I couldn't give less of a shit…"

"Fair enough," Freddie said with a slight smirk, happy to see that his love had regained her full composure and hadn't changed too much from the woman he fell for years ago. "I guess I will see you around dinner time then, right?"

"Wouldn't miss it," Jade said with a smile, kissing him softly on the cheek before running out the door, leaving Freddie to slowly stew in what he had just seen and heard.

* * *

"Do you have this piece in white?"

The girl working at the dress shop stared at the dressing room curtain that the bride to be was located, wondering if such a dark piece of lingerie would come in such a pure color. "Maybe… I will have to check."

"Ok… I just feel like… when he and I are finally alone and he can peel this thing off me, I think wearing white would be really symbolic and meaningful." Jade reached out and handed back a black lace thong and a skimpy black lace bra. "Do you understand what I mean?"

"Yes ma'm," the clerk said, rushing to the back, hoping to find something fitting the description.

Jade tried on a couple more pieces and look as a hand went through the curtain holding a black baby doll number. The future bride saw red and pulled open the curtain, not to reveal the girl, but the one person she really didn't want to come face to face with right now: Beck.

"I always thought that black was your color, Jade."

"Go fuck yourself, Beck," she said coldly, covering herself up as best she could. "And get the hell out of here before I scream."

"You know, I remember a time when that was less of a threat and more of a promise. And you screamed… a lot." The handsome actor took a step into the tiny cubicle so that they could truly talk.

"Seriously, Beck… this is not ok. You need to get out of here or I really will throw a fit."

"Babe-"

"Don't fucking 'babe' or 'baby' me, you fucking asshole!" Jade now gripped him by the collar of his shirt. "What kind of fucked up douchebag shows up at a wedding and pulls this shit?"

"The way I remember it, you were desperate to get away from him not too long ago. Which is why you ended up at my apartment. We didn't have to talk for more than a few minutes before you just attacked me."

"That was a long time ago, and more importantly it was a huge fucking mistake." Jade sighed deeply, hating the very thought of what she had done after the big fight. Everything that happened that week was practically a blur of bad decisions and horrible events. "I don't want to think about it. I don't want to think about you like that. I feel nauseous just from the memory. Just leave me alone."

"Jade… look… I'm not sorry for this, but I just know that you and I are what's meant to be. I came here at first because I was happy for you and I thought I moved on, but after… after I saw you here, and you just looked amazing even thought it has only been a year since I last saw you… I don't know…" Beck was clearly looking for the words. He knew this was wrong and what he was doing was a violation of Jade as well as everything that Jade valued, but he couldn't help himself.

"Just say your piece and go… or better yet, don't and just get the fuck off this island."

"When I saw you the other night, all those feelings and regrets came flooding back and I knew I had to at least try and stop you…" His hand reached out to her arm, stroking it softly. "I don't think I could have lived with myself if I didn't try to make you love me again."

"Beck… look… I…" Jade was floundering and she was starting to blush, as this really was a grand romantic gesture from a guy who never was emotional. But it didn't change anything. "I made my choice. We had a rocky relationship in high school, and we had some pretty great sex a while back, but we are just history. I love Freddie, I want Freddie, and that's all there-"

"Excuse me?"

Jade was so focused on not losing it, in every sense- rage, sadness, pity, love, and all those other lost feelings for Beck- that she didn't even notice the curtain being pulled back.

"These are not meant for two," the woman said sternly, but then immediately returned to her task at hand. "I found a very similar piece in your size in white, if you think this could work."

Jade could barely see straight, but grabbed the item and pushed Beck out of the room. "Thanks," she said coldly.

Beck was about to leave the store when the clerk looked at him, and whispered. "Sorry to interrupt you guys… I think you are going to make a really gorgeous couple."

Shaking his long black hair a bit, Beck chuckled and shook his head. "You don't say…" he muttered as he left the store and headed back to the inn.

* * *

Freddie Benson had searched up and down in the inn for any sign of Kelly or someone she may have spoken to, but no one had seen her since she ditched the scavenger hunt group the day before. Likewise, Beck was also notably absent, but at least there were sightings of his lover's former boyfriend, and Freddie resigned himself to wait and help Gibby out while he looked for anyone to discuss Kelly's room with.

* * *

"Ohmygod!" Cat jumped up and down in her room as she looked at Jade in her fancy white dress, unable to contain the excitement for her best friend getting married.

The redhead was joined by Tori and Carly who seemed just as excited, but far less 'bouncy' about it.

"It looks really good," Carly added.

"If Freddie hadn't already asked you to marry him," Tori said, getting close and checking all the details of the dress, "he would the moment he saw you in this. I'm so glad we talked you out of wearing that bloody one from that Scissoring movie."

"Watch it, Vega… I love that movie almost as much as I love him. But you really think so? You really think he'll like it?" Jade asked, feeling really nervous, even though deep down she knew that Freddie would love her even if she was just wearing a sack.

"Are you crazy?!" Cat asked rhetorically, "He's going to love it! You look like a princess!"

"Maybe…" Jade said as she looked over at a full body mirror and stared at herself. She was a little concerned about her pale exposed flesh on her chest and shoulders, but the way that the white strapless cups held her breasts in place just as well as it lifted them for exquisite cleavage giving the appearance of a corset in a way. The abdomen of the dress was practically skin tight before fluffing out at her thighs into waves of white ruffles, which was probably where Cat got the 'princess' vibe. "I just feel weird having my arms and top quarter of my body completely exposed."

Before Jade could say anything else about the dress, she got a text alert on her phone, zapping her focus away from the dress.

Cat jumped at the Pearphone and immediately dropped it onto the bed when she saw the message and who it was from.

"You just got a text from Beck, Jade. He says you need to talk to him. Why is he texting you… and why did he put 'Love' at the end of it?"

"Are you kidding?!" Tori asked, wide eyed. "Doesn't he know that you're a little tied up at the moment, what with getting married?"

"Calm down…" Jade said, trying not to lose her temper in this nice dress. "He's just trying to make up for being a shitty boyfriend. I will handle it."

"The way you 'handled it' with him before graduation?" Tori shot back.

"One, you're being a cunt, Vega. But two, it will be nothing like our senior year at UCLA… that was a mistake and I'm not looking back." Jade tried to hide her fear, but she was starting to really wonder about Beck at this point.

"I guess I'm missing something…" Carly interjected. "Did something happen with Beck?"

"Jade had sex with him," Cat quickly informed, earning glares from all the girls in the room. "It was over a year ago and Jade says they were on a break."

"It was a mistake… and I know we aren't exactly best friends, Carly, but I know how much Freddie means to you… so please don't tell him."

Carly just glared, clearly angry at Jade for doing something so stupid and possibly risking hurting Freddie. But then again, from what Sam had told her of that bad break that had brought Freddie to her bed, it was somewhat understandable. "You swear that you and Freddie were broken up at the time?"

"We were taking a break after a fight, and it just happened, and we agreed never to discuss what we did during that break, and we've moved on."

"Fine… but if you're lying to me, I will have Sam beat you with a butter sock."

This time, all eyes went to Carly as to what was the idea behind this exactly.

"So," Tori said, breaking the awkward silence, "I guess the real question is, what are you going to do about him… I mean, you can't make him leave, can you?"

Jade didn't respond, but just stared at herself in the mirror and tried not to think about the text or all the things she wanted to say.

* * *

While Spencer and his daughter were staring out the upstairs window, the real show was down below where his wife and Savanna's mother was busy doing yoga alongside Trina Vega. While Amy had always stayed in pretty decent shape, it was still amazing that she was in her 30's and was a mother. The brunette was wearing a tight pair of pants and a sports bra that was probably a size too small. Trina was clearly out of practice as her form was all wrong, but she wasn't bad to look at, at least.

As beautiful as Amy was, and Spencer hated himself a bit for salivating over this girl, a much younger and more flexible tanned brunette worked out side by side with Amy. Tasha was still wearing her skimpy bathing suit as she stretched to the point where he thought she would pop out, but she readjusted in the nick of time. He was thankful that Savanna was just short enough that she couldn't really see down from the window.

In fact, Spencer was so focused on the model that he didn't even notice that someone was coming up behind him until Savanna tugged on his pant leg, seemingly scared. He turned to face Nate, and after the initial surprise, as if someone had walked in on him doing something naughty, he was happy to greet the broad shouldered teen.

"Hey man, what's up?"

"Not too much," Nate said, chewing on the end of a toothpick. "Got mighty bored downstairs and figured I'd see what had your attention up here. Guess I was right."

The two men stood at the wide window, neither one saying very much as they watched the three girls push their bodies around and into positions that would be even too crazy for the bedroom. Even from high up, they could still see the tiny beads of sweat that were beginning to accumulate and slip down into the crevices they craved to explore.

"Sorry if this is overstepping at all, Nate, but how in the heck did you manage to hook that girl?"

He just laughed and shook his head. "I've got an engineering degree, played defensive tackle for USC, and have trust fund with millions coming in a couple years. But mostly, I think it's because of the accent. I wake up everyday and pray she doesn't meet a cooler person from the south…"

"Or anyone from the south," Spencer added.

"You sir, are an asshole," Nate said, with a chuckle as Spencer quickly covered his daughters ears from the language. "My bad…"

"It's ok… Savanna knows there are adult words that she shouldn't be using."

"Daddy's an asshole!" she exclaimed, earning frustrated looks from Spencer and a conservative grin from Nate.

"I see someone's learned a new word," came a soft voice from behind the guys. Spinning around they met Noelle, who still looked a bit worse for wear, but at least she seemed in good spirits.

"Glad to see you up and moving around," Spencer said, trying to be social, despite knowing he had nothing in common with the dark haired girl.

"Yeah… should be good soon." Noelle joined them at the window, and rolled her eyes as they were clearly jerking off with their eyes, but sneered a bit when she realized the third was Trina. "I'm thinking I interrupted something."

"Not really," Nate said, chewing on his toothpick, his eyes focused on Tasha's body, when a thought hit him. "Hey, Noelle, ain't that the girl who left you hangin' in the woods last night?"

"Yeah," Noelle said, narrowing her eyes with a burning anger towards Trina, but she didn't want it to show. "But she apologized… so… there is that."

* * *

It had taken asking several people, but Freddie had finally gotten the name of a place that Beck was seen, so naturally he took off to find him.

The Corner, as it was called, was comprised of three shops- a hunting/fishing supply store, a barbershop, and a dress shop. While the dress shop was probably the least likely, he didn't want to run the risk of running into Jade if she was really trying to stay away from him to keep her dress a secret.

"Excuse me," he said to the girl at the register, poking his head in the surprisingly large clothing place. "I know my fiancée was supposed to try on her wedding dress and some stuff, and I just wanted to make sure that she wasn't here."

"I don't believe so, sir," the girl said looking around the empty store.

"Brunette, this tall," he said, trying to describe Jade now that a lot of her distinguishing features had been removed like the highlights piercings, etc. "She was wearing a black and blue top this morning."

"We've only had one woman like that in here today and she was with her fiancée. Are you also having a wedding here?"

"Ummm… as far as I know, we were the only ones. Was her name Jade?"

"Yes, West, I think?"

"Ok… that's definitely her… who was she with?"

"Oh…" the girl's eyes went wide with surprise as if something bad had just happened and it was her fault. "I really thought it was the groom… handsome guy, shoulder length black hair, really tan."

"Fucking A…" he mumbled earning a surprised look from the shopgirl. "Sorry… that would be an ex of hers… Thank you…"

Freddie didn't wait for her response as he bolted from the door, racing back to the inn, seeing red the whole way through as he took a shortcut through the woods, and let his wander over all the ways he was going to destroy Beck.

He had no idea how he had gotten back to the inn, his entire journey a pure blur of rage and revenge fantasies, but as he rushed up the stairs he considered just going back into his room and screaming, but decided on something else.

Thanks to an empty hallway, he was able to slip to Beck's door and pick the lock with relative ease. The room was completely straight, in contrast to the way that Kelly had left things in hers, which was a pleasant surprise, but certainly not enough to quench his rage.

Freddie rifled through papers, looking for some information or piece that would confirm or deny his deep seated fears over what might be going on. Moving on to his suitcase, Freddie felt around for any papers or tech that he could check for info. Reaching into another duffle bag, his hand wrapped around a laptop, but brushed against something that certainly felt wrong. Freddie pulled it out by the handle, gasping as he revealed a small .22 caliber handgun.

Before he even had a chance to have a thought about his discovery, her heard Beck's voice and then rushed to a closet to hide from sight as best he could, gun still in hand.

"…I get that Ruby, but she's not buying it… No, I said that too…"

The moment he heard that it was Mrs. West, Freddie's fear of being caught turned to pure fire as he tightened his grip on the weapon, trying not to lose it and give himself away.

"Look, she thinks anything to do with me is wrong, and I don't see myself changing her mind… She's your daughter, how the fuck is that my fault?!... This is completely shitty what you're doing here… I don't care how much you pay me, Ruby. I'm done with your bullshit… I'd like to see you try…"

Freddie's anger towards Beck was slowly slipping if for no other reason so that he could make room for his anger towards Mrs. West, and no doubt Robert as well. After all he had done to appease them, and they are pulling this complete and utter bullshit days from the wedding, this was the angriest he had ever felt.

"You two can try and ruin Jade's life all you want, but I'm done… No, I can't do this… Yeah, make all the threats you want, but I got that job because I worked hard and auditioned… Bullshit, Ruby…"

There was a delayed silence, followed by a crash, where he had clearly tossed the phone. Freddie had no idea what Mrs. West had said, but it was clearly enough that it served as a conversation ender. Another smashing sound signified his throwing his door open and storming outside.

Now thankfully alone in the room, Freddie slipped from the closet breathing a bit easier from getting caught, but practically shaking from his unbridled anger that he couldn't wait to unload. But first, there was something more important that he needed to deal with.

* * *

"Oh, I have been needing this…" Sam said, laying facedown on a white table while a pair of strong hands worked her over, rubbing out all of her stress and anger with each touch.

Next to her, Amy lay in the same position, getting the same treatment, and made the same moaning and grunting sounds as her masseuse was clearly a bit rougher with the touch, but clearly that was what Mrs. Spencer Shay was into.

"Getting way too handsy!" shouted a voice from the opposite side as Sam. On the other side of Amy, Trina was getting ground into by a very masculine woman, which Trina was not a fan of in the least, but at least the eldest Vega found it effective. "Just keep it above the waist, Lady Lurch."

The sneer being given to Trina's back could practically be heard through the room, as the woman did her best to abide by the wishes of this annoying bitch.

"Sweet chizz," Sam said softly, as the masseuse hit the sweet spot. "Momma's been waiting for you to get that nerve. Like magic."

Amy smiled into her towel, but quickly started getting up, trying to cover up as best she could. "I think I need to go," she said, reaching into her robe to check her phone. "Yup. Savanna needs my help… you girls have fun."

"Guess we can try…" Trina said with a sigh, annoyed that she was relegated to spending time with the girl she had wanted to strangle for a quite of bit of the previous day. "So you used to live with Cat, right?"

"Yeah… for a little while," Sam said stiffly. "Things got weird after a while so I left. Not much more to say."

"Any validity to those rumors that you and period-head used to fool around?"

"If you're talking about Cat, that's a pretty shitty thing to call her. And also, that's none of your fucking business."

"Whoa… I was just calling her a fun name. You don't have to be so offended by everything," Trina said, looking up from her towel. "Sorry… but I guess that answers my question."

Sam wanted to jump form the table and strangle her, but she settled for giving Trina's masseuse a look, as if to send a secret signal.

"Ma'm?" the strong woman asked Trina, "Would you be interested in one of our honey and melon baths? They are great for opening your pores through your chest and stomach."

"Sure," Trina said, starting to adjust so she could flip over. "But not by you… I want whoever the guy was who was working on Amy in here… he can do it."

"I'll pass," Sam said, starting to stretch a bit so her assistant could hit some better places.

"No surprise there," Trina said, rolling her eyes. "Usually trash has no idea what it's missing."

"Something like that, I'm sure."

There was a couple minutes of silence as Trina flipped over, placed cucumbers over her eyes, and enjoyed a man's touch as he spread a warm, sweet smelling substance from her face all the way down to her groin.

"You know, Cat and I used to be really good friends."

Sam looked over at the naked brunette with the most critical face she could muster. "No way."

"Yeah… we used to hang out and get foot baths and talk about makeup when we were in high school together. Before my stupid sister came and ruined it all."

"What a shame…" Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah… she just changed."

"It couldn't be that you were just a total assbag, right?"

"You are just a twat, blondie." Trina said, unable to really be too angry as she was getting some very deep tissues worked on. "She got in tight with Tori, and Jade, and now all of you Seattle people… I just don't get it."

"You forgot Noelle… the girl you could have killed," Sam said, sitting up and looking at the doorway and nodding.

"Yeah… I just don't get what her deal is, or what Cat sees in her… I mean, I'm not a dyke or anything, but what does that mousey chick have that I don't?"

"A pillow," said an unidentifiable voice as a ripping sound was heard.

Before she could move and get the cucumbers off her eyes, she was completely covered with so many feathers, they filled the room. The last thing she saw was Noelle laughing along with Sam, before the dark haired girl kissed Sam on the lips in the most platonic way possible before racing out of the room.

Trina was up, not even caring that she was only wearing a pair of panties at this point, completely covered it white pieces that weren't going anywhere. The eldest Vega rushed after Sam and Noelle, leaving a wave of white behind her, even across the foyer of the parlor where Gibby, Andre, Robbie, and Col. Shay were all wearing bathrobes, awaiting their turn in the massage area of the spa.

If the girls hadn't have rushed past the scene, it would have been the perfect photo op.

* * *

Jade sat alone in Tori's room which had become her new home, looking around the pop singer's room, anxious to find something to take her mind off what happened earlier with Beck and how the girls reacted to everything.

Cat and Carly had not stuck around much after the text, both visibly upset that Jade would even talk to Beck after the way he handled himself, and they didn't even know about what happened at the dress store today.

Tori, on the other hand, stood by her and helped her get undressed before the girls sat on the bed and just talked. Both had been partners of Beck for a time, and he was really the reason their friendship was halted, and he was also the reason their extra-beneficial friendship happened, so there was that.

Jade eventually opened up about Beck popping up when she was checking into lingerie, and Tori was absolutely stunned. It was a complete jerk move, but even she had to admit that there was something cavalier and really romantic about going to the limit to try and take Jade away. That being said, Tori thought, Beck was nothing compared to Freddie.

If it wasn't for a panicked phone call from her sister, Jade felt like she could just collapse with Tori for the remainder of the day. But alas, the ever annoying eldest Vega ruined Jade's plans for rest and relaxation and Tori was just a memory and a bed indention now.

Jade was considering grabbing a quick shower, when there was a sudden knock at the door and a note suddenly slipped under it, as the shadow of feet disappeared. Grabbing the small piece of paper, Jade felt her stomach turn for a few seconds as she read over the words.

-Jade,

I thought a lot about what we said at the shop, and I want to make this work. Please come see me in the 3rd floor storage room in 10 minutes and I will show you how I feel.

-Beck

The brunette stared at the paper so hard it should have just burned up from the intensity. How dare he, of course was her first thought, but then it was suddenly phased out as she envisioned it like Tori described his actions- Beck was trying to swoop in and rescue her from a life deemed unworthy of her.

She knew this shouldn't even be worth a thought. She knew it was wrong. But she had to at least go hear him out… it would be unfair not to.

Jade slipped out the door and headed up the stairs, trying to breathe, stopping every few seconds to re-evaluate her choice. Slowly she approached the door where Beck was waiting, and reached for the handle, but her hand was paralyzed. Her eyes were zoomed in on the ring Freddie had given her that night in the rain.

Her hand shook, almost uncontrollably, and she couldn't even touch the handle. With a deep sigh, she turned around and raced down the steps back to her room, feeling utterly ashamed for even considering going to meet Beck.

On the other side of the door however, Freddie stood, his hands clenched in tight fists clearly just as nervous as Jade was. He was relieved that she didn't take the bait of his message, but the fact that she would even come this close made him feel incredibly uneasy.

Freddie released a soft sigh, and relaxed his grip, feeling the pain in his hands surge through, as his tight fist blocked the circulation, and prepared himself for what needed to come next.

* * *

"You're looking very shiny tonight, Trina…"

The oldest Vega sister stared through the crowd with fury at Sam, Amy (holding Savanna's hand), Tasha, Noelle, and Cat after hearing the blonde former web star's jab. The dining room was packed

"Oh shove it, Sam… that took hours to clean up from." Trina felt like she needed to watch her language since there was a child around. She did have some manners after all.

Tasha looked like she was about to sneeze, closing her eyes, with her fist up to her mouth, when all of a sudden, she opened her mouth with a fake sneeze, tossing several of the leftover feathers with the breath.

"Here, Trina…" Noelle said, stepping forward away from the laughter, batting her blue eyes at her tormentor, and now tormentee, "Let me buy you a drink."

"I don't want a drink. I want an apology. My skin is very important to me and you and your… people ruined it. I had to do so much-"

"Trina," Amy said, trying to appear at least a little responsible since she was the oldest person in the group. "Look, you left that poor girl upside down for hours on end like a friggin' piñata and could have killed her. She got you back in a fantastic way that clearly did no real harm. Just put the bad blood to rest."

The eldest Vega wanted to bite the woman's head off, but seeing that she was with that little girl, she just couldn't force herself to do what usually came naturally. "I guess so…"

"Thatta girl, sweetie," Amy said, patting Trina's shoulder. "Now sit down and drink up. Take in the joy around you for once."

* * *

One place where there was certainly a lack of joy at the night's after-dinner party, was in the far corner where Ruby and Robert West sat, watching what was going on around them in silence, judging each and every guest, but none more than their future son in law.

To make matters even worse, their back-up plan of using Beck to push Jade away from this ridiculousness had seemingly failed, and was on the verge of backfiring completely. They couldn't believe that he was backing off, even with all that they were offering financially. And, to add insult to injury, he was now avoiding them with the occasional evil glare.

"We need to have a conversation."

The sudden interruption quickly snapped the attention of the couple to the young man who was now taking a seat at their table. Freddie was usually fairly friendly, or at the very least cordial to the Wests, but the look in his eyes this evening said it all.

"Go on…" Robert said, taking a sip of his drink.

"I get it. You are very rich and powerful sir, and that's all well and good."

"I certainly hope your toast will be much more eloquent, Mr. Benson," he shot back, attempting to maintain control of the situation with intimidation.

"You don't need to worry about my toast, sir… You need to worry about your daughter, and more to a point, you need to consider what's going to happen after this dinner." Freddie relaxed in the chair a bit as he could see that West wanted to take another shot, but Freddie refused to give a little at all. "I know about Beck, and I know that you are the reason that he's been harassing Jade."

The look on his future in-laws' faces was utterly priceless, and he figured he should just go ahead and make the killshot.

"If you're worried about me telling Jade what you've done, don't. It's not my place to. But let me be completely clear… Don't expect me to treat either of you with a grain of respect, because I don't give a fuck about impressing you. The only thing in this world that I care about is your daughter. End of story."

When Freddie had gotten through his whole spiel, he noticed their eyes were not focused on him so much as what was behind him. He spun around quickly to see Jade and Tori standing nearby, unsure how much they had actually heard.

It was clear that Jade tears in her eyes as she stared with burning anger at what was in front of her, but not a drop of it was meant for her fiancée. She grabbed Freddie's hand and pulled him from the table, her glare not once breaking from her parents and she resisted flicking them off or saying a word, deciding that no words would ever be appropriate for what they had for who they were.

The Wests were utterly speechless, feeling even more embarrassed, and ashamed. But while Robert got up from the table and went to their room to really think about what they had done, Ruby decided to wash her guilt away with another drink or three.

She regretted not staying with her husband just minutes after he disappeared when her cell phone beeped signaling a message. Color drained a bit from her reddened face as she saw that it was Beck.

-40K and I get a ride out of place or I show everyone why you and Robert are the worst people imaginable.

He was calling her bluff. She had threatened him on the phone earlier, but now he was the one drawing lines in the sand, and to be honest, she felt completely trapped. Unlike Robert who had no issue with pissing people off to make a point, Ruby was desperate to be liked and the idea of being exposed made her feel utterly sick.

-Fine. Meet at the back pool in one hour.

Ruby texted back as quick as she could before heading out from the party, deciding whether to cut this little shit a check, or to just ask Robert to go handle him.

* * *

It had been nearly two hours since he had texted Mrs. West, but Beck was still sitting out by the pool, waiting patiently on what he was becoming less and less proud of- the blackmail of someone who actually liked him.

But since it seemed like she was just messing with him and wasting his time, his guilt was quickly morphing into pure rage. Clenching his fist, he looked through the window at all the guests, and didn't see either of the Wests, so his idea for grandstanding and making a scene would be pretty pointless.

He debated going back to the party, but all those happy people and the remotest possibility of running into the Wests after making his ultimatum just seemed awful. After a couple minutes of hyping up the joys of drinking alone in his room, Beck headed to the kitchen, which was practically empty after dinner.

Slipping past Gibby with relative ease, he slipped into the wine cellar, which also contained the secondary freezer and took a look at what some of the options he had for snatching a bottle that would probably not be missed. Beck ended up picking a bottle at random, and rushing back up to his room, hoping that no one would see him, and that he could be left relatively alone until morning.

If Beck had gone into the freezer, he probably wouldn't have noticed anything out of place. But if he had gone deep into the cold storage, to the very back, he would have seen why Ruby West was late.

Beyond all the slaps of meat, animal carcasses, and bags of excess freezable food, there was something that certainly didn't belong. Something with long black hair, with duct tape over its mouth, and a meat hook to hold it up, with it's point clear through the body. Silently, Ruby West swung softly, feet inches from the floor, in the icy locker, her eyes frozen wide in final and fatal terror.

* * *

**I know a number of people expected that one of the Wests would be meeting their end pretty quickly, so good call on that one. I've also heard some great theories with only a couple chapters in about the killer. Thanks to all for reading and I truly look forward to all your thoughts, reviews, and critiques of the chapter and story so far. On another piece of business, I had previously announced a new story that I would start soon that would cross iCarly and Jessie, but that has been put on hiatus as some issues have come up. Thanks again for reading.**


	5. Thud

**Still feeling a bit under the weather so I will keep this short. Shorter chapter, but I hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

"Are you Madame Clara?" Amy asked as a peculiar mousey looking woman made her way into the inn's foyer. She was younger than Amy had expected, but one look at her eyes, and her age showed tremendously, and her body language showed that she was instantly uncomfortable but seemed to be fighting through it.

"Yes…" she said with a sweet smile, looking at Amy and then to Savanna. Normally Savanna was rude to new people, but she offered out her hand for the psychic to take, earning a laugh from both of the adult women. "I'm assuming you're Mrs. Shay who called me?"

"That I am, but you can call me Amy. And this is my daughter Savanna," she said with a smile, as she held onto Savanna's hand and led the medium through to the conservatory where she could set up. "I think this is where we are going to hold the stuff tonight if that's ok."

Amy had no idea where the idea came from, but she had thought of a really interesting idea for how the girls could have a safe and simple bachelorette party, and Carly, as the wedding planner, seemed to be a big fan of the idea.

"This seems just fine, Amy," Clara said, as she took a seat and began to unload her supplies from her bag.

"I want to keep things light if you can… I think there's a lot of stress and tension and I think the last thing anyone here could use is something terrifying."

"I will probably just give basic readings, using the runes and the tarot, possibly commune more with the spirit world… does that seem acceptable?"

"That sounds like exactly what I was hoping for. And just in case the 'spirits' need a little bit of help, I got some basic information on everyone that'll be here tonight," Amy said, producing a small notebook she had spent most of the morning making.

While the adults talked a bit more, Savanna was starting to look at the tarot deck in front of her, marveling at all the pretty pictures on the cards, but getting them very mixed up.

"Savanna!" Amy said, trying to scold her daughter from once again fooling with stuff she had no business in.

"She's fine," Clara said, leaning over so she could be on eye level with the young girl. "You're a very wild and lively spirit, aren't you?"

"Mom says that I'm a terror," which caused the two women to share half smiles. "Are these magical?"

"In a way. Those cards help me see and know things. They allow me to tap into the spiritual realm and understand and help people."

"I know things about people too but I don't use magic," the child shot back, as if this was a contest.

"I will bet…" the psychic said looking at Savanna as she wandered through the cards but stopped on one in particular, cocking her head. She turned the card around and showed Clara the ten of swords, a notably negative card which featured a body with ten swords sticking through it.

"Does this mean that someone else is going to die here?" she asked with innocence, as the two women looked horrified. It was just a question, but the wording made both of them feel incredibly uneasy.

Amy took Savanna's hand and pulled her from the room to give Clara some time to think and setup, and to get her daughter, who was getting creepier by the hour, back upstairs where she could hassle Spencer with her weirdness.

* * *

Freddie stared at himself in the mirror, knowing he should probably shave a bit, but since this really was his last free day before going on display, he decided against it. For the next day or so, he was going to be a pure bachelor. He vainly admired himself, post shower, in the mirror, focused on how good of a hair day he was currently having. And just when he thought things were off to a good start, he opened the bathroom door.

Standing next to his bed was his future wife, without a shred of clothing on her, revealing every bit of her succulent flesh that was humanly possible. He'd seen Jade naked thousands of times at this point, but he always took the time to appreciate her beauty and this moment, while surprising, was no different.

"You look pretty great, babe," he said with a smirk.

"Do I?" she said, coyly biting her finger, giving off a seductive look that making the tight towel he was wearing even tighter. "I hadn't noticed."

His hands moved forward toward her sides, but she dipped away from him, teasing softly as she could see that he was enjoying her show.

"I gotta ask… what's the occasion, Jade?"

"No occasion. Just wanted to see you…"

"Jade," Freddie smirked, suddenly getting what she was playing at. "Is this your way of telling me to enjoy myself today, but not too much?"

"Me? I would never…" she said, in her breathy, sweet accent that she always used when pretending to be Tori, which had been an interesting development a few times. "Is your bachelor party today? I had no idea…"

"Seeing how you just brought it up with no cue from me, answers that question, babe."

"Guess I better put some clothes on then…" she taunted, turning away from him, before he grabbed her hips and spun her back around to him eliciting a squeal. "You're not my husband yet, Mister Benson!"

This chastity thing was utter bullshit for Freddie, and it had never been more difficult to resist the girl than in this moment. Still, his hands stayed firmly on her hips, not moving up to fondle and worship her generous chest which was extremely sensitive, or moving them lower so that he could play with her delicate flower and tease her like she was getting him.

Instead, Freddie just pulled her close, his hardness pressing against the towel, and certainly against his future bride's crotch, physically calling Jade's bluff.

"Mmmm…" she cooed, losing herself for a moment and burying her face in Freddie's warm neck. "I cannot wait for this wedding to be over, Freddie Benson. I need this."

"Me too, babe," he said with a sigh, knowing they didn't have time for this if he was going to meet the guys downstairs when he said he would. "Should I be worried about tonight?"

"Oh please…" Jade said, pulling away slowly. "Everyone else planned this thing for me tonight, and I don't think your mom, Tori Carly, or her sister in law are interesting or wild enough for you to worry about at all. Now, if I got to plan this out, it would be Magic Mike but X-rated…"

Freddie slapped her ass softly for being such a teaser. "Well, I will see you tomorrow, I guess… assuming we both survive the night and can still stand."

"Oh, I meant to tell you…" Jade said, gathering her clothes from the bedside. "I talked to my dad this morning. Apparently, my mom felt so sick last night that she took a night shuttle off the island to rest in Seattle."

"I can't imagine what could have happened…" Freddie said as he dressed, still very bitter about his future in laws being such terrible people.

"Pretty sure she got what was coming to her, if you ask me," Jade said, before kissing his nose. "Remind me when I'm naked with you again to repay you for standing up for me… and us."

"You can count on it, baby."

* * *

"But the spirits, mom!"

"Savanna…" Amy started, petting her daughters head, and looking into her curious and innocent eyes. "There's no such thing as spirits."

"But that lady talks to them and they tell her things. I think I've talked to them too."

"Sweetie, there is nothing going on and you haven't talked to any spirits either… You were probably just imagining it."

"No, I'm not!" she screamed out. "The spirits are going to tell her bad things. They are not very happy with us."

"Savanna…" Amy said, rolling her eyes. "Look, even if there are spirits, I don't think there's anything bad for them to tell her. Everyone is happy here and we have nothing to worry about."

"You promise?"

"Yes, little lady, cross my heart," Amy said doing a massive pantomime cross on her chest, "hope to die."

"You shouldn't hope that, mommy… I don't want you to die."

Amy sweetly kissed her forehead and stroked Savanna's hair, hoping and praying that Spencer was having a good time at the bachelor day because his daughter was about to drive her crazy. "Everything is going to be fine."

* * *

As Clara was finishing her morning ritual of trying to cleanse an area of evil spirits, she thought that checking some of the notes that Amy had made might not be a bad idea, and at least could give herself a level of familiarity.

The blonde woman scanned the sheet looking for any names that popped out at her, as far as a link to something powerful:

**April 17, 1994- Sam Puckett**

**November 15, 1988- Amy Rivers-Shay**

**July 24, 1994- Carly Shay**

**July 26, 1995- Jade West**

**March 8, 1995- Trina Vega**

**October 11, 1995- Tori Vega**

**November 8- Noelle Westlake**

**February 26, 1996- Cat Valentine**

There were a couple other names on the list, but drops of blood a third of the way down the page alerted of two things: One, that she had a serious nose bleed going on that she was completely unaware of, and two, that something was very very wrong here.

* * *

On the back porch, there was a gathering of guys, the likes of which would have looked incredibly strange to an outsider, but the more that Nate, Andre, Robbie, Spencer, and Gibby hung out together, the easier it all seemed.

"So… did you take care of the thing," Andre vaguely asked Gibby as he took a sip of his beer, despite it not even being noon just yet.

"The thi-?" he responded for a half second and then understood what he meant. "Yeah… found the 'package' for tonight. Local girl."

"Stripper," Robbie said with an embarrassing grin. "Yes…"

"She better be hot, man," Andre said quietly. "If she's a local, she probably doesn't have any teeth and like C-section scars or something."

"Clearly, I walked up at the wrong moment…" The guys turned around and saw Freddie standing there. "Who has C section scars now?"

"Nobody," Nate said coldly, hoping the guys could keep a secret better than this.

While the word 'friend' was a stretch for a couple of these guys, Nate especially, Freddie couldn't think of a better group to spend his last full day of freedom with.

"So if this is my bachelor party- a bunch of grown ass men standing around and drinking, then this is a piss poor excuse for a shindig."

"Just so happens, little man," Spencer said, rubbing Freddie's hair out of place, "that we have just the thing for you to spend your day doing."

"Go on..." Freddie asked, as Spencer produced a small box from his jacket. The groom quickly tore past the tape to see what was inside, and found a tiny figurine with a phaser-sword and starship, and Freddie instantly knew that this was. "Holy chizz, Spencer… are you serious? The roleplaying game? We're doing this?"

"Yup," the best man said, patting Freddie on the back.

"Learned a long time ago," Gibby added. "Some guys like to fish, some like to hunt, but Freddie Benson loves him some Galaxy Wars."

"And the Fight for the Federation expansion," Robbie added.

"This is incredible," Freddie said, elated at this development. "I have been trying for years to get people to play this game."

"And now you have 5 people that are prisoners to your game for the rest of the day, and we have some other plans for tonight," Spencer said with a laugh. "Oh, and wait until you meet our 7th- Rhonda."

* * *

"So I guess that's one down for the party tonight," Carly said, going over the list and pointing out that Mrs. West wouldn't be making it to the bachelorette show.

"Is it really that big of a loss, Carls?"

"You know it burns me up when you call me Carls… only reason I let Sam do it is because… well, you've met Sam."

"That I have," Amy said with a knowing release of breath. "My question was, do we need to make any changes or arrangements due to the mother of the bride being absent?"

"Not that I know of…" Carly thought, and looked over the basics of the night. "In fact, I think we are all better off for her absence."

"Fact."

The two Shay women walked around the foyer and meeting hall of the inn when they ran across Savanna and Col. Shay laughing together.

"What are you two up to?" Amy asked.

"Poppa and I were just playing some cards," the little girl shot back, her eyes never veering from the cards in front of her.

"Savanna is playing," Col. Shay said, shaking his head. "I'm getting completely obliterated at Go Fish by my granddaughter."

"Savanna?"

"Yes, Aunt Carly?"

"You have to go easy on this old man," the former web star said, smiling at her father, and teasing with him. Ever since his return, Carly had gotten much closer with her father, and the family as a whole, and most of that was due to her niece's arrival. "In his old age, he's not as sharp as he used to be."

"Hardy har har, kiddo…" he fired back. "You should try matching wits with this one…"

"You go away," Savanna said coldly. "Grandpa and I are playing and I need my focus."

All the adults were stunned for a moment and shared a restrained laugh at the bossy little girl who seemed to run things most of the time.

"That wasn't awkward at all…" Carly said with a faint smile.

"You should try spending day in and out with her," Amy said, shaking her head. "She's been acting crazy lately too."

"Speaking of crazy," Carly interrupted, "Not sure if I told you, but I think I'm going to give Freddie and Jade a memory book about them. You know, their early lives, before they met and then probably get some stuff from when they were dating."

"That does sound like a good idea."

"Yeah… I finished Freddie's side up before we left Seattle, but Jade's side has been tough… probably because I just don't know her as well. But I need to get a few pieces that are really important laminated."

"Cool… I can go with you to the library or copy store here if you want me to."

"Nah… I think you need to tap out your father in law from the looks of the way Savanna is being a sore winner."

"No rest for the weary," Amy said, shaking her head. "Or wicked… I can never remember how that one goes."

"Since it's you, let's just go with both, just to be safe," Carly joked back before heading upstairs to grab her book.

Within a few minutes, Carly was out the door, headed to the shop down the road to make her copies, and she booted up her Peadpod so she could listen to music and jog most of the way.

She wasn't sure if it was the music or what, but her mind began to wander and she was daydreaming for much of the run. Carly was so lost, in fact, that she didn't see or hear the car in front of her.

"Holy shit!" she called out as the car nearly hit her, just swerving to miss her, and she dropped her book, onto the ground.

"I'm so sorry…" the woman driving said, a tissue held up to her nose. "I started getting this nosebleed this morning and it just hasn't stopped… are you alright?"

'Yeah…" Carly said, "It's ok… Hope you get that taken care of miss…"

"Clara," the woman fired back. "And I hope to… not sure what the problem is here. Be safe, young lady."

The car drove off and Carly looked to where the book had landed and was completely horrified to find that it had partially landed in a puddle, and while it wasn't dirty, the water had done some damage.

"Fuck…" Carly said under her breath, and headed back to the inn, to see what she could salvage from her gift, knowing she was going to have to practically start over on some of these pages. Silently, she cursed the woman, and then herself for not paying attention as she should have.

* * *

If the lackluster relationship that Marissa Benson and Jade shared wasn't well known before the start of the bachelorette party, it became brutally obvious very quickly. Not even counting trying to pressure Sam into stealing Freddie back, Marissa hated Jade every step of the way, and especially when he got engaged to the tramp.

Jade felt very similarly about the overbearing role Freddie's mother had played not only in their relationship, but in Freddie's whole life, damaging him for a long time it would seem. Though, even with all of the woman's insanity, Freddie still came out an incredible guy so she could at least be thankful for that miracle.

"I know it's not much," Marissa said, bringing a box from upstairs down the stairs, sitting it on the table before opening it, "But I came up with the idea that we could all match."

What came out of the box in front of Marissa was enough to make Jade's stomach turn. Pink and green sweaters with Freddie (heart)'s Jade emblazoned across them. Sam was practically snickering, which Jade shared a laughing glance, before realizing that the blonde was a couple sheets into the wind already so most things were making her giggle.

The party was pretty boring overall for the bride-to-be. There was drinking, mild music, and apparently some psychic that Amy had found was going to come later. Mostly, the girls had just clumped up into groups and were chatting to pass the time.

Thankfully for Jade, Cat and Tori had remained close by her side for much of the evening so far, and since they were the primary bridesmaid and Maid of Honor, she felt comfortable with her court.

Noelle moved back and forth between Cat's side and hanging back with Sam since Noelle and Jade weren't exactly best friends but both sides had more than enough conversation points. It was during one of these conversations that Noelle mentioned to Sam what happened with the ring, and losing it by the water.

What she didn't realize, however, was that Trina was listening in on this conversation, and was instantly inspired for a way to get back at that cocky black haired bitch for ruining everything.

"Just wait until you see what I got you guys," Tori said, really excited. "Actually, let's go check it out now."

"Thank god…" Jade said, rolling her eyes. "I need to get away from these people for a few minutes."

The Latina took Jade by the hand, along with Cat, and headed to the dining room, where Tori had laid out an amazing tea set that Andre's grandmother had left her, and since she really had no use for it, and since Andre came up with the idea, Tori thought a wedding gift would be a great use for it.

What was revealed behind the door, however, was something that sent waves of anger and sadness through all three girls, and Tori let out a scream.

The set had been smashed to pieces. And not like the table cloth had been pulled off and it fell to the ground, but the set was still essentially in place where Tori and Andre had set it up, but each individual piece of china had been broken apart.

The other women rushed behind the trio and looked at the dining room, each one just as horrified as the rest. But Amy's feelings of shock were quickly replaced by anger as the culprit seemed obvious to her.

"Has anyone seen Savanna?" she asked coldly, fist clenched.

"I'll go find her," Carly said, knowing her sister in law had gotten fed up with Savanna's precocious nature today.

The former web star ran up and down the halls of the inn, looking and listening for her niece until finally, she heard a faint voice coming from the library. Slowly, Carly crept up on the door and saw Savanna sitting on the floor playing with cards and just talking to them. As she listened closer, she could hear that it wasn't a conversation, but a phrase repeated over and over.

"One by one. One by one. One by one."

Carly reached out and touched Savanna's shoulder and the little girl jumped a bit.

"Aunt Carly?"

"Yeah, sweetie… are you ok?"

"No… I'm not going to get to be a flower girl, am I, Aunt Carly?"

"Savanna… why would you say something like that?" Carly asked, feeling very uneasy. "Who told you that?"

"The spirits. Mommy doesn't believe in them, but my new friend told me all about them and what's going to happen."

Carly considered asking, but humoring the little girl's fantasies seemed like a really bad idea, and asking if she knew about the china incident seemed like an issue for another day.

Taking Savanna's hand, Carly pulled her up and led her up the stairs to her dad's room. Normally, Spencer would be the first person that she would take Savanna to, but since he was busy apparently with Freddie's thing, the Colonel was the obvious next choice.

Once Carly had dropped off the creepy little girl, she raced back down to the party, hoping she hadn't missed anything important, as if that was possible.

* * *

A few miles down the road, the second part of the bachelor party was underway at this dive bar filled with locals who seemed to be fishermen for the most part. Needless to say, the clean cut young adults from the big cities stood out tremendously.

The first part of the day had been tons of fun for Freddie, and Robbie, for the most part, but seemed to be absolute hell for the rest of them. Nate could never pick up exactly what he was supposed to be doing and sat out for quite a while after his character was killed. Spencer and Andre were miserable, but they didn't let Freddie see that since this was about supporting him.

Gibby had never played an RPG before apparently, because he kept trying to control the situation. For the second round, when Nate was taking a nap, they just made Gibby the Dungeon Master so that he could do what he wanted to. This concept also blew his mind since there were no dungeons in the space based games, and the title was just a term.

Freddie was nervous meeting the mysterious Rhonda that the guys teased him about on the way to the room to play the game, but arriving, he discovered that he spent all that time being anxious about meeting a blow-up doll with a bad black wig that had spray paint to simulate Jade's former hairstyle. For most of the game, Freddie was handcuffed to the plastic plaything, and when Nate dropped out she took his place. There was no notable difference sadly.

But tonight, Freddie had good reason to be concerned. Somehow the guys had come up with the idea that getting a stripper for the occasion was a good idea. Gibby had found some local girl, named Annalee, which all the guys spent most of the day teasing him about the quality of such a girl.

However, all the laughing and jokes came to an abrupt end when she arrived, and she was incredibly attractive. Brunette with a very thin body but incredible curves. Robbie's jaw remained on the floor for a pretty good while as the young lady danced in her bra and underwear since the bar forbade the nudity, but Annalee pushed the limits, eager to earn her tips.

As she slid her back against Freddie, sliding down between his legs, she quickly spun around, kneeling on the floor, her hands firmly on his knees. She looked up at him with a seductive look, that quickly turned to terror.

"Freddie?! Freddie Benson?!" she exclaimed.

"Umm… yeah?"

"It's me… Lee Anne… Mrs. Briggs' niece. You and Sam and Carly babysat me a few times."

The color drained from his face as he looked down at the girl, unable to see the 8 year old that he had played board games with a decade ago.

"Oh wow… I had no idea that you were… and you look… great" he choked out while the other guys looked at him, "I, uh…"

"Just relax, man… This is just a job," she said, moving back up to grind against him.

"Yeah… I… can't do this," he said with a heavy sigh as he moved from the chair and headed up to the bar, while Andre took his place with gusto.

Freddie looked at the barkeep, then back to his friends that were having the time of their lives, including Robbie who was passed out on top of Rhonda, which had already served its purpose as the photographic moment of the night. Nate was doing his best to not look at the dancing woman too suggestively, and drinking away the evening as he texted with Tasha, eager to get back with her.

* * *

"I see that you… must be careful," Clara said, looking at the rune stones and comparing them to what she had read through the tarot cards. "You are not on the side of the angels… and that will be your downfall if you don't carry the heavy burden of-"

"Fuck this," Trina said, blowing off the psychic completely, and rushing from the table.

"I'm sorry, Miss Vega, but-"

"Clara…" Amy said through her teeth. "I thought we agreed to keep things light and fun. So far you've just been making people uncomfortable."

"I'm sorry, but there are some very sinister forces at work here, and I would rather keep people safe from-"

"Look, I don't care what sort of mumbo-jumbo hoodoo you think you can do, I paid for entertainment. Lie if you have to."

The medium looked with a gaze that haunted Amy a bit, unsure of how to feel about being asked to betray her gifts. But then again, everyone has to pay a mortgage.

"Yes, ma'm," Clara said softly. "Whose next?"

"I am," Jade said, looking a little worse for wear. The rules of the night were that anytime Freddie's name was mentioned, the speaker would have to drink. Needless to say, Mrs. Benson was beyond gone at this point, and Jade had intentionally 'forgot' the rule but ached to drink away her feelings of loneliness.

"Alright… Jade," Clara said, looking at the deck and giving the former mean girl a six card spread.

As the cards flipped over, they revealed, a seven of swords, reversed two of cups, The Fool, ten of swords, The Empress, and the Tower reversed.

"Ah… I see that you have a complex relationship on this island, and one of uncomfortable love has lead to betrayal. But the betrayer will actually be your savior, and though the journey to be safe will be rife with stress and incredible loss, but there will be a light at the end."

"Nice…" Jade said, sarcastically. "That was decidedly cryptic. Can't imagine who it might be about."

Jade shot a look over and Cat and Tori signaling that they knew who she was talking about, though the list of people that had betrayed the former goth was longer than just Beck.

"I know who will never betray me though… Freddie."

"Drink!" several people, including an already inebriated Tasha, shouted out as Jade gladly downed a shot of something she had poured herself.

"Oooh… me next," Noelle said, jumping up and down, taking Jade's seat quickly, since Cat's was less than positive. The shy intelligent girl had been very nervous to get involved with this stuff since she was raised on the belief that it was evil. Still, her curiosity got the better of her.

Once again, Clara prepared the spread for the raven haired brain, looking to Noelle, and revealing another six card spread. This time, it opened with the 9 of cups, the seven of wands, the Page of Swords, Temperance, reverse The Sun, and reversed The Hanged Man. The irony of her last card was not lost on Noelle at all, as she laughed at the possibilities, until she saw the serious look on Clara's face.

"I can see that you are planning to start a journey with a loved one, and you feel that your love cannot be stopped by any force, but you are too curious at times for your own good. A strong bond of trust will take you far, but you feel out of place with a group of friends. This nature will lead to sacrifice, but for the good of those you love."

Noelle, just stared, concerned that if the bits about herself were true, than would the future parts also come to pass? "Umm… thanks… I guess."

"They're only cards, dear," Clara said after getting a glance from Amy. "I think I have time for one more, if anyone would like their fortune told."

"I think I want a go at this," Carly said, looking a bit nervous, but not wanting to show her fear or concern that the woman could draw from. Plus, she wanted to see if she could intimidate the woman since she nearly ran her over earlier.

Clara prepared the cards, but something felt really off, and she fumbled the deck and spilled her cards all over the floor. Bending over to pick them up, she saw a splash of red fall onto a sideways version of the Moon, and as Clara gripped her nose, she knew her nosebleed had returned.

"I'm sorry…" she said, as her nose dripped on several cards, including The Hanged Man, The Tower, and Death, three of the most ominous cards in the deck. "I can't… I need to go."

The woman gathered up her cards and her belongings and threw them into the bag before starting to race out of the door, but Amy stopped her at the doorway.

"Clara, we paid for-"

"I don't care how much you pay me, and I will give every cent back…" she said, her eyes wide with terror. "None of you are safe here, and you need to leave right away. Grab your loved ones, and leave this island… Otherwise, a terrible fate awaits all of you, one by one!"

The words that Savanna had repeated over and over haunted Carly, and she started to go after the escaping psychic, but Amy stopped her short, eager to put the crazy woman out of mind.

* * *

On the dark edge of the shore, Trina Vega was walking around, using her phone for a makeshift flashlight, trying to look into the water and on the edge for what Noelle had lost. Motivated as much by revenge as greed, Trina wanted to stick it to that uppity girl and ruin her chances with Cat. Plus having a diamond would certainly be nice since she was secretly afraid that she would never find someone to love her.

"C'mon…" she said to herself. "I really need to find you, sparkly diamond thingy…"

Trina trailed off as she saw a shadow behind her, but before she could turn around and see who was stalking her, she felt a sharp pain against the side of her head, and just dropped, everything becoming a vortex of black.

* * *

Though she promised she wouldn't bother him, Jade was feeling very lonely as she walked along the edge of the pool, and needed to talk to Freddie. She brushed off her fortune, but the truth was that it really threw her, and she needed something that would make her feel comfortable.

Dammit, she thought, voicemail again. She debated hanging up, but decided to leave a message so he could at least come see her when he was done with… whatever he was doing.

"Hey, baby, it's me… Tonight was really shitty, so I kinda hope your night sucked. I'm just at the pool… Had to get away from all that crap, and-"

Jade's words were stopped when she felt a strong pain against her head, instantly blurring her vision and pushing her into the pool. She wasn't sure if she was underwater for a second or a minute, but there was a humming sound when she came up for air, and saw the glimmer from her phone at the bottom of the pool. Jade dove back in to grab it, mostly out of love for the device, and since it was a gift from Freddie not long ago.

When she came back up however, she found a hard plastic sheet blocking her way. Quickly realizing that the pool cover was over her, she raced for the thin area where it hadn't gotten to.

As fast as she swam though, she just couldn't beat the creeping cover to the other side, and it covered her, and she used as much energy as she could to push and break through it, but felt herself getting weak, and before she knew it, everything became pain and burning as she gasped for breath and darkness quickly enveloped her as the humming sound started up again.

* * *

"Is she ok?!"

These words were the first things that Jade West had really heard since Freddie's outgoing voice message. They also caused her to vomit a bit of chlorinated water, she had apparently swallowed.

Her eyes fluttered open to reveal Freddie kneeling on one side of her, and her father, dripping wet on the other side. The strange taste in her mouth signaled that her father was the one who had given her mouth to mouth, which was disgusting of course, but she certainly wasn't going to complain now. Standing around behind them were nearly all the girls from the party, and a few of the guys, including Beck, and Carly's dad.

The two major men on Jade's life now sat face to face, Freddie giving a soft nod to signal that perhaps he wasn't the worst father ever.

"Are you ok, babe?" Freddie asked, cradling her head into his chest and rocking her back and forth.

"Yeah…" she said softly, still gasping for air a bit. "I think so."

"What happened, sweetie?" Robert asked, looking around the pool.

"I'm not sure," she said, shaking her head. "I was calling Freddie… leaving a message, and then it all kinda goes black. Like I got hit or something. Then the pool closed up."

"There was no one at the control when I saw you in the water," Robert said, "Are you sure you didn't hit the button and then fell in?"

"No!" she snapped. "Someone hit me, I fell in, and then, the cover came over."

"We can talk about this in the morning, Jade," Robert said getting up. "I assume you can get my daughter to her room safely, Mr. Benson."

"Yes sir," Freddie said, not even concerned about their spat the night before. He helped jade to her feet as the crowd dissipated and headed back inside for what was left of the bachelorette party, but the bride and groom headed upstairs, and while they had no intention of having sex, Jade slept in Freddie's bed that night, as the muscular teen spent most of the night sitting up, unable to sleep, watching over his lover.

* * *

A couple miles away from the inn sat Schneider's Cemetery, behind the primary church, the future site of the Benson-West wedding. Despite a look across the surface of the area, which showed the grounds completely empty, there were still muffled sounds to be heard. But this wasn't uncommon really, as many children would dare each other to spend time in the graveyard, hearing strange noises and assuming the mythical Slasher had returned to get them.

Tonight however, the sounds coming from an open grave in the area, were not from some spirit or animal, but from a curvy brunette who had tape across her mouth and her hands and feet were tied together. The rope from Trina's hands fed into a small pipe above her head.

Trina squirmed and wriggled and did her best to get out of the ropes, screaming muffled sounds for anyone who might hear her, but sadly, there wasn't a person around for at least half a mile. She had no idea how long she had been down here, but she had been awake for several minutes now, staring upwards at the night sky view blocked by a couple taller statues, arms pulled hard against the dirt wall of the grave's edge.

As she squirmed, she felt some thing sharp. With all her energy, she ground the rope against the sharp part of the pipe, where apparently it had been chipped, trying to cut through the rope as fast as she could. Trina quickly realized that the more she freed herself from the rope, the harder it became to move her arms, as if it was weighted by something.

The eldest Vega sister pressed on, trying and stretching as hard as she could to get herself free from whatever sicko would do this to her. Her hands and wrists were red from the stress and she could feel blood coming from her hands where she'd scraped too hard on the sharp thin pipe.

Finally, after a good couple minutes of cutting the rope, she felt it finally starting to give, and she got one hand loose. The shadows above shifted tremendously, but she was determined to get out of this awful situation and didn't notice. She reached to rip the tape off, but the focused strain on her other arm was so intense, that she had to give her attention to that, practically spraining her wrist as she strove to free herself from the nylon restraint, until finally she had both hands free.

Trina only had a split second to enjoy her victory before she realized in the deepest horror the immense mistake she had made. The rope was tied to a loose large stone statue above the grave as it turned out, and without a weight to keep it from falling, the angel fell forward into the open grave.

The eldest Vega was only able to whimper as she felt the immense falling weight hit her, crushing her, breaking bones, and with no one able to hear her muffled screams of pain, within minutes, from the combo of shock, internal injuries, and probably hopelessness, she was dead, and the cemetery was silent once more.

* * *

**Well, our first 'main' character from the shows is dead, and by the end of next chapter, not only will the killer make themselves known to be acive, but the body count will steadily rise as well. Remember that no one is safe. Really anxious to hear your thoughts and reviews. Sorry to be short and to the point, but I'm just under the weather. Thanks so much for reading and I hope you will continue to enjoy.**


	6. Cough

**I know, I know… it's been a while. And for that I truly apologize but hopefully this longer chapter will make up for the wait. Once this chapter is over, I have a feeling some of you might be done with it, and for those that stay after this is over, things are not going to slow down at all until the end of the story. I really hope you enjoy.**

* * *

"Do you have any idea how busy I am right now, babe?!"

"Yes…" Freddie said slowly, putting his hand on the shoulder of his bride-to-be and kissed her cheek before she was able to pull away and start freaking out about something else. "But you need to relax."

Jade looked over the main area that would serve as their reception space and couldn't believe how much there was to do, and for Freddie to just assume that she could take a break was ridiculous. "I will stop when this gets done."

"You just need to take the day…" he argued. "We have the rehearsal tonight and the wedding tomorrow night."

"Exactly, and there's like 50 things that need to get done between then and now!" she hollered back. "I love you Freddie, but you need to get the fuck out of here before you make me hurt you."

"Look, you nearly died last night. That's a big fucking deal. You are not in your best mind right now, and I just think it would be best if you just relaxed, de-stressed, and cleared your mind of this stuff. At least, for the morning."

Jade was going to say something but her father walked by, and was immediately grabbed by Freddie.

"Mr. West, tell your daughter that she needs to rest."

"Sweetie…" he said, as warmly as he could, putting his back to Freddie. "He's right. I nearly lost you last night so I can certainly advocate a rest."

"But-"

"But nothing, Jade," he said firmly. "Your… Freddie… can handle things here for a while. Right, son?"

"Yes sir," Freddie said, hatred put aside so that his love could recover well.

"Fine…" Jade sighed. "But I'm not just going to lay around. I need something to do at least."

"Good deal," Robert said, putting his hand on his daughter's shoulder as he used his eyes to tell his future son-in-law to scram. "How about you and I take a bike ride? Like we used to when you were little, and not so… y'know… this."

"Sure, dad," Jade said sarcastically. "Let me just take away the last 20 years, and it will be like nothing ever changed."

"I'm not asking you to change…" West sighed with a sad sigh. "You're my only daughter and I have to give you away tomorrow. I know I haven't been perfect, but I'm doing the best I can. Can you please give me this?"

Jade wanted to say no and every fiber of her being wanted to stay right here at the inn and get work done, but the sad look on his face was just too powerful and she couldn't help but just nod her head.

"Good girl," he said, kissing her forehead, and pulling her along to go upstairs to change and then get some bikes.

* * *

"It's a real shame that mom couldn't make it," Jade said in her most monotone, uncaring voice possible as they slowly made their way through the woods along the path..

"I can feel the worry in your voice dear," Robert said with a slight smirk, proud that his daughter had gotten his dry sense of humor. "Island air just didn't suit her I suppose. She texted me from LA this morning, but I couldn't get her at the house."

"Maybe she's having another affair," Jade said coldly, speeding up to pull away from her father a little bit as he scoffed. "But whatever… guess that's typical behavior for her."

"Well, you weren't exactly the most gracious child, especially here."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Jade said, coming to a quick stop.

"We go through all of this trouble, do the best that we can considering and you couldn't be bothered to let your own parents know that you're already married? Your mother was-"

"Look…" Jade said softly, realizing the gravity of the situation. "It was in Vegas, and we were just messing around, and we were drinking and it just happened. We didn't keep it from people to hurt anyone… it was more… I don't know… embarrassment."

Robert West reached over and kissed his daughter's head once again, making it the most he'd ever done it in a single month since she was elementary school. "I guess that makes sense. I guess it's the same reason we don't talk anymore."

"You think I'm embarrassed of you?"

"No…" he said softly with a heavy sigh. "I'm the one who's embarrassed. I don't know what happened, but you and I used to be so close… and then you just grew up, and I just stopped having anything to talk to you about. And when we would talk, I would be so out of the loop, I just stopped caring and I guess I intentionally distanced myself from you as much as you were doing for me. I'm just sorry I was never there for you."

"Dad… its ok. I… I'm sorry, too." Jade was fighting back tears. Her father was never emotional and he certainly never discussed his feelings, so this truly was a momentous event. "I was a pretty shitty daughter, I guess."

"No…" West said, firmly. "Difficult, but not shitty. But you were a teenager and that's natural. I guess I never really had any idea it would be that hard."

There was a good bit of silence as the two started moving forward again, peddling slowly, but steadily. After almost two minutes of silence, Jade cleared her throat and spoke.

"I'm really happy to be out here with you, dad. I really missed this."

"I missed you… but I promise I'm going to be better and do everything I can to put you first."

"And this wedding…" Jade said, taking a deep breath, "We don't even discuss the Vegas wedding anymore and only a couple people knew about it, like Tori, so it wasn't like I was keeping it from you guys specifically. But the point is that this here is going to be our wedding, and nothing else matters because this will be the real one and the one that truly matters to Freddie and I."

"I'm so proud of you, sweetie." West said, pulling ahead of his daughter slightly. "You really do mean the world to me and I-"

West was cut off as he hit a thin fishing line trip wire, stopping his bike, and curving the wheel in front of Jade. This random act of physics saved them as a huge log swung in pounding into the side of Jade's bike and leg as it threw her to the side, along with her father, and the two just rolled down the steep hill, with West's body cushioning Jade's fall a bit. However, Robert West was barely conscious, his head bleeding from being stopped by a rock.

"Dad?" Jade said softly, as she quickly sat up and shook her father a bit to get him roused, but it was no use. Grabbing a water bottle from his bag, she doused his face, praying that would work.

"Ah!" he shouted, sitting up with a start, instantly clutching the side of his head. "What was that?!"

"I don't know," Jade said, turning to look up the steep hill where the log was still swinging back and forth before seeing the mess of plastic and metal around them. "Don't think you'll get your deposit back on these bikes, dad."

"Great…" he said weakly, trying to stand, which, after a little wobbling for balance, he managed to do before offering his hand to Jade.

The moment she grabbed onto it, and put pressure on her left ankle, Jade knew she was in trouble as a searing pain flew up through her leg. "Shit!" she screamed the sharpness coming as a complete surprise.

West manages to help his daughter up all the way and to lean on him for support as best she can. "I don't have my phone," he said calmly. "Left it at the inn… figured getting away would be nice."

"Great…" she said coldly, reaching into her pocket for her Pearphone, but what she pulled out was a shattered piece of plastic, and cut her finger on one of the shards. "Fuck!"

"We've got to have a talk about your language, baby…" he said, trying to lighten the mood as the two hobbled through the massive woods, searching for a path and calling for help.

* * *

This will teach her for sure, Robbie thought as he stood out on the main balcony, trying to open a package of firecrackers. The her, of course, was Trina, who had apparently made a complete bitch of herself at the party last night. While he had no plans for the epic honey/feathering revenge that Noelle had sought, Robbie knew he wanted to set the mean girl off. Now he just had to decide what that would entail.

"You're gonna get in trouble."

Robbie spun around and came face to face with Savanna, being her usual precocious self. "Oh yeah… how's that?"

"You're messing with fireworks… that's bad. You are going to get in trouble."

"No, miss… I'm not."

"Why?"

"Because," Robbie said, unsure of how he would explain himself to this little girl. "Because everybody thinks I'm crazy. No one's going to treat me different at all."

"I heard that you were crazy and that I shouldn't talk to you."

"And yet here you are…" Robbie said, sounding creepy as he spoke, and he immediately pulled back.

"You are crazy, mister," the little girl said with a laugh. "We should be friends. I want to help you."

Robbie was unsure of how to take this, but he shrugged and smiled, and for some reason, spilled his plan to the far too precocious little girl.

* * *

"Jade… I'm dying here."

Freddie paused on the deck outside as he left his voicemail, when someone rushed past him, throwing him off for a moment.

"Not really, but I could really use a talk with you if you could give me a call back. I know you said you'd be back in an hour, but it's been almost three, and I'm…. I don't know what tablecloths go with which tables and I barely know how napkin rings work, let alone when they should be used. If you could give me a call or just come, I would be forever grateful. I might even marry you… just kidding… but seriously… love you and talk soon."

"Still can't get her?"

Freddie spun around and faced Carly, who had a notebook, which meant that he was about to get asked some ridiculous preference question again.

"No…" he said with a sigh. "I'm hoping she's alright."

"She's fine…" Carly said, looking over the list once more. "You said she was bike riding with her dad… maybe she just has her phone on silent. From what I've heard, they could use the alone time."

"Maybe…"

"Look, I hate to keep dragging you back into planning, Freddie, but we only have enough table runners for half the people that are supposed to be here, so what should I do?"

Freddie looked at her blankly for a few moments. "I have no idea what a table runner is but just use your best judgment, Carly."

"Ok…" the dark haired young woman said with a heavy sigh before turning back around to head inside, but doubled back as her eye caught something on her notebook. "Hang on… as I'm sure you noticed, Tasha and Nate seem to be an item now, but I have them seated across the room from one another… do we want to move some people around or what?"

"Ahh… that's actually something that makes sense to me," Freddie said, coming over to look over her shoulder at the table setup. "What if we-"

BANG!

"No…" a voice whimpered from up above.

Carly and Freddie jumped back in an instant as the tiny firecrackers exploded, and immediately looked above to see a dark curly haired person run from the balcony, along with the laughter of a child. For Carly, there was no question of that child's identity, and she more than enough reason to suspect Robbie of this.

Freddie just simply laughed and shook his head, more out of exasperation than annoyance, before turning back to Carly and heading back inside to discuss things.

* * *

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Knock, knock, Robbie."

The dark and curly haired teacher knew who was on the other side of that door, and after she had screwed up what he was trying to do. But she was still a kid, and it felt wrong not to try and reach out and help her if he could.

"Come in," he said, before he even had the door open all the way.

"That," she practically shouted with a smile plastered to her face, "was so much fun!"

"Was it?"

"Yeah…" she said, holding her voice out. "We should do it some more."

"I can't…" Robbie said, deciding that lying a bit couldn't hurt. "You used up all my firecrackers."

"We don't have to do fireworks… we could throw a chocolate bar in the pool so it looks like someone-"

"Savanna… I'm kinda busy this afternoon," Robbie walked over and shut the bathroom door where all of his copious pills sat around. "So I can't do anything else today."

"Why do grownups always say they're busy even when they aren't really doing anything?"

"Well…" Robbie quickly scanned his brain for an excuse for this situation. "Sometimes adults are busy but they just don't look busy. You know… because they are busy thinking about stuff."

"I think about stuff too, but I'm never too busy to have fun. But I guess I should go practice being a flower girl." Savanna headed for the door, but then turned and looked at Robbie and she could tell something was wrong, but decided to shrug it off. "I need to get my flower girl walk just right. But I might not have to."

"Really? Why's that?"

"Because… my friend told me I won't have to if I don't want to."

Before Robbie could ask who her friend was or what was up with that, she was gone out the door, and he was left alone in his room, pondering what he could do to pass the time.

* * *

"When I said that we should spend more time together, honey… this isn't exactly what I meant."

"You sure you should be making jokes, dad?" Jade asked, half seriously, still hanging onto her father for support. "Pretty sure this is the longest time we have spent in the same place since I was a kid."

"Sounds about right…"

"I just feel so bad for Freddie," Jade said with a huff as they tried to move past what looked like a junkyard in the middle of the forest. "He doesn't know a candlestick or a chafing dish from a callow lily. Carly and the others are probably eating him alive."

"Wouldn't be that healthy of a meal," West snarked as he pulled ahead.

"Ugh…" Jade groaned, stopping short and giving her father an evil glare. "I really thought we would be past this."

"What are you talking about, Jade?" he asked, seemingly unaware of his comment.

"You hate him… you don't do anything to hide it."

"I don't…" Robert desperately searched for what he wanted to say here, "hate… the kid. He's smart, ambitious, and it's pretty obvious that he loves you, and-"

"He's just in the wrong tax bracket, right?" she said with a sneer as she crossed her arms.

"Jade… it's not that… really."

"Then what is it?!" she shouted back. "What the hell is so wrong with him that you have to cut him down every step of the way."

"I don't… trust him," West said with a heavy sigh. "I know you love him, Jade, and I'm sure he loves you too, but my gut tells me that there's something very wrong with that boy. The same goes for everyone on that side- Carly, her brother, the blonde girl-"

"Because they aren't like us… you don't trust them?!"

"No, it's not-"

"No dad… clearly, that's the problem." Jade was practically red, and she pushed past her father and tried to make move up the hill using trees for support. "You'd rather listen to your stomach or your fucking instincts than your own goddamn daughter."

Robert West tried his best to follow his daughter to make sure she didn't fall, but still stayed back feeling ashamed and angry at the same time, shaking his head as he trekked on.

* * *

"Thank god…" Freddie said, plopping down on a couch inside the conservatory of the inn. "Thought I was going to lose my mind picking all that stuff out."

"I would have thought Jade would be doing all this?" Tasha asked, now that she was no longer alone in the room, stirring her glass.

"She normally would, but after what happened last night, I told her to take some time off," Freddie said, checking his phone and looking very unhappy that he still had not heard anything back from her. "Kinda regretting it now."

"Well," the full lipped model said, slightly licking her lips at the groom, "Maybe you just need an escape to distract you from all of this while you wait for her to get back. I could make you a drink."

"Umm… maybe," he said, unsure if she was flirting with him or something, which was somehow was one of the more awkward things he could experience. "I think I-"

"Freddie?!"

He was cut off as Carly, who had been running all over the whole day, came rushing ahead, with a phone attached to her ear and a very angry look on her face.

"What did I do?" he asked, knowing he was about to catch hell for something.

"You? Nothing… Sikowitz says that the church is still locked, the key isn't working, or the door is stuck or something." Carly was clearly frustrated and visibly getting more annoyed as the voice in her ear continued to drone on. "Think you can head over there?"

"Ugh… I just sat down, and-"

"Then you stay here and map out food placement for the reception."

"What I was trying to say…" Freddie said, recovering and desperate to get away from all of this, "was that it would be my honor to go and help."

"Somehow I guessed that," Carly said, before heading back over to finish up her call, leaving Freddie on a couch with a suddenly closer Tasha.

"Gotta go… I will talk to you later, Tasha," he said, stretching for a second when he got up. "I'll have to take a rain check on that drink, I suppose."

"You bet," she winked, as she waved him off, as did Carly when he headed out towards the old church.

Using his travel time as well as he could, Freddie dialed Jade and unsurprisingly got her voicemail again.

"Baby… I am so sorry for ever saying that your work here was simple or easy. I'm really missing you and I would kill to see your face at this moment. Please give me a call back, or come back… I will be at the church for a little bit to help out so check there if you can't find-"

A recorded voice cut his message short, and Freddie considered erasing it and starting over, but decided against it, as the first draft was usually the most real.

A couple minutes later, Freddie reached the church and found the nearly bald man sipping a drink as he just stared at the door.

"Freddie, my boy!" he called out. "Seems we have a problem."

"Yeah…" Freddie said, not nearly as excited. "Carly told me about the door… I'm going to try and pick the lock since it's an older door."

As if by magic, it only took a few seconds of picking and prodding for the door to open, but both men quickly regretted the opening almost instantaneously.

The smell, wafting through the door was horrendous, and Freddie nearly vomited as he opened the door further to find the source of this hell. What he found was somehow even worse than he could have ever expected.

On the alter, there were the bodies of four animals that had been opened up and dissected essentially, still fresh since the last body was still dripping. It looked like a raccoon, a cat, a fox, and worst of all, a skunk.

No longer just a movement, Freddie rushed back outside into the air to spit up everything that he could get to come up. Sikowitz, on the other hand, just stared in horror, almost unable to move or look away from the grisly scene.

"We have to clean this up," Freddie said, completely emotionless.

"We should just find another place to do the ceremony," Sikowitz said, offering real advice for once.

"No way… this needs to be taken care of, and if we can get some cleaner and find something to get those bodies into the woods, we can do this."

"Why?" Sikowitz asked, in the awkward position of seemingly answering to someone considerably younger than him.

"Because you know Jade, after all she did to decide and plan for this wedding, she's at her wits end. And if she ever found out that this happened, she would probably murder us."

The older teacher considered a retort, but after realizing that Freddie was right, decided to swallow his words and search for something to help clean with.

* * *

"Look… I'm sorry, sweetie."

Jade stopped ahead of her father and turned around. "For what?"

"I've been perhaps too… hard on Freddie, and maybe you're right."

Jade was not anticipating that he would get to the point so quickly since he was much more passive aggressive with his issues. "Ok…"

"You're my only daughter and he's just… but you know…If you think he's a good kid, and this is what you really want, then…" West was clearly struggling in admitting his defeat on this topic, "you have my support."

"I really appreciate that, dad. I'm sorry for being such a brat and for… you know… everything between us."

"Of course, I…" West's words were stopped suddenly as the pair spotted someone up on a higher hill walking their dog. It looked like a man, but there was something wrong, as if he was disfigured, but the exact details were hard to see really thanks to the distance and the shade of the trees above. "Hello?!"

There was silence as the man just stared at them.

"Can you hear us?!" Jade called out waving her arms. "We need some help!"

The man leaned over towards his dog and it looked like he was petting the beast, but as his hand pulled back, the end of the leash came with it, and the dog, which was a beastly German Shepherd raced down the hill towards them, barking.

"Shitfuck!" Jade screamed, as she looked for some way to move or stop the creature, but Robert grabbed her and pulled her back the way they came as fast as the two them could move.

"There!" he shouted, pointing at an old car that had just been abandoned in the woods, and he reached and opened the door, practically throwing Jade inside before getting in himself as the beast bit into his arm. A quick jab from the reasonable spry father, pushed the dog off, and he managed to shut the door as it lunged and scratched at the rusted metal door and thick window.

Are you ok?" Jade asked, a fearful quiver in her voice as she saw the blood on her father's arm.

"Yeah… I think he just nicked me. I've had worse," West lied as he clutched his injured arm, hoping that Jade wouldn't notice his pain. He could take solace in the fact that they were safe for the moment, but now they were trapped.

* * *

"You ever think this is how you would spend your last day as a bachelor?"

Freddie looked over from scrubbing the church's carpet to the older teacher who was hard at work wiping the alter table.

"Cleaning up a big mess before my fiancée finds out? Yeah… seems to be a good prep for this marriage."

"Ha ha!" Sikowitz gave a deep laugh and kept on working. He might have also said something else, but Freddie couldn't hear it.

His eyes were instead trained on a small piece of red and white paper tubing that looked burned. It was exactly like the fireworks that were tossed at him this morning, and there was only one person who could have left them here. And only one person who was sick enough to commit this horrible act.

Freddie Benson decided at that moment that he was going to strangle Robbie Shapiro.

* * *

"Dad…" Jade said in a quiet whisper, her voice trembling with fear. "I don't hear anything anymore."

"You think that beast is gone?" he said peering out the window.

"I don't know…"

West's eyes scanned the inside of the forgotten car and his shoe touched something glass. Using his foot to roll it into sight, it was an old beer bottle, and it was intact. Or at least it was, until Robert West grabbed the neck and smashed the bottom to create a jagged stabbing weapon, and took a deep breath. He leaned over and kissed his daughter's head before slowly opening the creaking door and slipping out.

Just before he could get his last leg out, he spotted their would be assailant that was hiding on top of the car. West couldn't even scream for Jade as the mighty dog tackled him to the ground, the bottle slipping out of his hand, and he did his best to keep its strong jaws away from his neck as it thrashed around, desperate for a kill.

"Dad!" All Jade could do was scream as her father was on the verge of being mauled, and West pulled his foot from the door, and then kicked it closed, just in case this really was the end for him. Jade smashed her hands against the window, desperate to help her father, but he was keeping that door pressed shut.

After a lightning fast bite to his shoulder, he began pressing his arm against the neck of the German Shepherd, West had just enough reach to grab the neck of the bottle and thrust it upwards as he moved his arm back, stabbing it. Despite the loud yelp of immense pain, West pulled back and thrust hard once again, as the heavy dog bled out over him. Robert used all his strength to push it off of him as Jade jumped from the car to rush to her father's aid, unable to tell the dog's blood from his.

Robert staggered to his feet and as his daughter hugged him tight, he began to realize that bite might have been much deeper and more serious than he had anticipated.

"I don't…" he said, trying to breathe so he spoke as quickly as he could, "suppose you will be expecting tonight to be formal?"

Jade was so thankful that her father was alive, that she didn't mind his stupid joke. Ripping the bottom of her old t-shirt, Jade used it as a makeshift bandage, and hoped that would do the trick until they could get back to the inn.

"Don't worry about me, princess," he said softly. "You've got a big day tomorrow, and Freddie's going to be a lucky guy."

Jade wanted to say something but she was completely choked up, and tears were starting to stream, leaving clear tracks from the dirt that had applied itself from the fall. So, she just nodded a thanks for his approval, and held onto her father tight as they used each other for support, heading towards where they believed to be safe.

* * *

Miles from the forest, Cat and Noelle had ventured out into the town, the raven haired woman bored of the inn and Cat was too jumpy to sit still. So they did what any lesbian couple bored at a wedding would do- go to a local bar.

This was the same bar of course, that Noelle had visited for the scavenger hunt, and also the home of Freddie's incredibly awkward, by most accounts, bachelor party. Today however, it was pretty loud and boisterous, which was great for Cat, but less so for Noelle. The petite redhead excused herself to the bathroom upon entry and Noelle took a seat at the bar.

"What's the occasion?" she asked when the female bartender came to get her order.

"Oh, it's a big deal. Frank Harris, the factory foreman, been with the same woman off and on for like 8 years, proposed to his girl, Jo, last night."

"That's… great." Noelle nodded, completely unaware or uncaring of who those people were. "Frank the factory foreman… that's interesting."

"Yeah," the woman said, leaning over a bit to share the story. "They were walking down the beach near the big inn when he found this ring, and he just proposed on the spot. Like fate or something."

"Fate…" Noelle trailed off, and knew she had to see this for herself. "Would you excuse me?"

Slowly, Noelle made her way to the table where the woman was proudly showing off her ring, and the moment she saw it, there was no question in her mind where that ring originated. Taking a deep breath, she headed to the table where a burly man was getting slaps on his back and beers raised to him.

"Frank, is it?" she asked, tapping him on the shoulder.

"Get away, little girl," one of the guys said, slurring a bit and proving he was already probably too far gone.

"Yeah, that's me," the burly man said, turning toward her just barely. "What do you want?"

"Well…" she started off, just now realizing that she might not have the easiest time with this. "First off, congratulations. This is certainly a big deal to get engaged and whatnot, but the thing is… that's actually not your ring."

"Oh really," he said, with a puff of hot air.

"Yes, 'Prove it' you will say. 'Gladly,' I respond. That ring…" Noelle said, taking a deep breath to remember the details. "It is 1.5 carats, with a brilliant color rating, and a clarity of BBH1, which, if you didn't know, is very good, and…"

The table of guys just stared at her looking more and more pissed until their silence was broken with a cracking of a neck as Frank stood up, towering over the young woman.

"I'm not getting my ring back, am I?" she asked, already well aware of the answer. The guys turned their attention back towards each other and ignored the almost crying raven haired girl in the room as she made her way back to the bar.

As she sat down, the bartender didn't even ask, and just served her a shot of something amber colored.

"What's wrong?" Cat asked, coming up behind her girlfriend. "You look sad."

"Kitty Cat… do you remember the first night we were here, and we went swimming, and you got mad and threw my purse in the water?"

"Yes," she said shortly. "But we agreed not to talk about it ever again."

"Well… there was one piece that I didn't mention when we talked…" Noelle took a swallow of air, and grabbed a nearby shot and downed it. "I forgot to tell you that there was a… ring that got washed away."

"But why did you have a ring in your purse? You hate jewelry…" There was a pause there as the synapses in her mind started firing until the truth became clear. "Omigod, ohmigod!" the redhead started practically jumping.

"The thing is… that… couple over there…" Noelle pointed as Frank posed for a pic with his new fiancée. "The man, Frank, he found the ring and proposed… so they have it now."

"Oh, fuck that!" Cat said, in a rare moment of cursing for her. "That ring's for ME."

The redhead grabbed the other shot in front of Noelle, and took a breath before racing over to the guy and tapping him on the shoulder.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" Cat shouted at the guy before slapping his mortified face as hard as she could. "After everything we shared, Frankie, and you just up and propose to some cheap whore?! I mean… I gave… everything to you. Even that thing I swore I would never let a guy do, and you just pretend like I mean nothing?!"

Frank was utterly speechless, but Jo stepped in front of him.

"Who is she?!" the blonde woman screamed.

"I-I-I don't know… I've never seen her before-"

"Liar!" Cat shouted, and Jo slapped Frank across the face, completely believing Cat's tirade. "And just so you know, I'm keeping this baby!"

"Fuck you, Frank!" Jo screamed, pushing the stunned man against his table of guys. Then she unscrewed the tight ring from her finger and threw it at him, and thanks to some quick maneuvering by Cat, she managed to catch it.

Noelle could just stare with wide eyes as the love of her life became a totally different person, but once the tiny jewelry was in her hands, the sweet girl that Noelle had fallen for years ago popped back up, and before she even realized it, Cat had grabbed her hand and pulled her outside.

"That was…" Noelle began, but quickly realized that she just didn't have the words for what it was.

"Let's just get out of here," Cat said, now fully back to her old self and running from the bomb she had just lit.

* * *

"Help!" Jade called out, now carrying her father a lot more than he was supporting her, as she stepped onto the grounds of the inn. "Somebody! Please!"

Freddie rushed out, followed quickly by Tori, Carly, and everyone else that could manage to help. As his future father in law was helped to the door, Freddie took a moment to take in his love and hold her tightly, kissing her face as many times as he could.

"I was so worried, baby…"

"I was too..." she sighed. "Phone got destroyed. Then some inbred backwoods local set his dog on us, and nearly killed us."

"Oh my god…" was all Freddie could manage, as he shook his head in disbelief.

"Yeah… I need a shower," Jade said, pulling from Freddie a bit, but still holding on to his hand. "Speaking of… what, uh… what's that smell?"

"Dead raccoon…" he said, quickly and confidently. "Don't ask."

"Ah… and that was what part of planning this wedding for me?"

Freddie wasn't sure for a moment if she was serious or not, but just laughed and helped her up the grass to the inn. After a few steps, Tori and Carly rushed out to check on her, and they take much of the weight.

"I'm going to clean up, Benson…" Jade said over her shoulder, and Freddie secretly hoped this was a subtle invite to join her. "Don't you dare come see me until I'm presentable."

Freddie looked sad for a moment, and took a deep breath. Now that Jade was back safely, there was really only one person left that Freddie needed to see.

* * *

KNOCK KNOCK

Spencer was pleasantly surprised when he found Freddie on the other side of the door to the room.

"Hey buddy… I figured you'd be helping Jade after what Carly told me happened."

"That was fast," Freddie said, cocking his eye.

"Yeah… but you know Carly and her texting. Like lightning, my sister," Spencer said, backing up so he could come in. "Amy's down looking at her dad. She was going to school to be a nurse when the art thing happened. Plus, someone needed to stay up here with Savanna."

"Yeah…" Freddie said, looking around the room, "Look, Spencer, have you seen Robbie?"

"The weird black curly haired kid? Ummm… not really. Not since the boat ride at least,"

"Hmmm… you mind if I talk to Savanna for a couple minutes?"

"Sure," Spencer said with a confused look. "She's in her room, playing with her dolls probably. Pretty much all she's done since she got here."

"Oh really? Hmm… ok," Freddie said, unsure of how much attention Spencer actually paid to the girl's activities. He made his way to her room and looked in on her, playing with her doll's hair, as described.

"Hey, Uncle Freddie," she said with a quiet excitement that quickly turned into concern. "You aren't mad about this morning, are you?"

"Oh no…" he said with a plastered smile. "I'm sure it was very funny… Plus, I know how tough it's been since there aren't really any kids here for you to be friends with."

"Oh, I have already made a friend here," she said, matter-of-factly.

"Really? Would Robbie be that friend?"

"I've made a lot of friends, Uncle Freddie…" Her voice trailed off into a whisper as she leaned towards him. "But I can't tell you about them because you aren't supposed to know."

"Well, I suppose we all have our secrets, right kiddo?" He said, hoping to gain her trust. "I need to know, though… did Robbie take you to the church to play with the firecrackers today?"

"No… but that sounds fun," she said with an innocent smile. "I wanted to play more, but he said he was too busy and he made me leave him alone. I think he's sad."

"Well, that's very perceptive of you, Savanna," Freddie sighed, thankful that the young girl wasn't a part of the atrocity he committed at the church. "Well, you keep being a good girl, and I will see you tonight for the rehearsal, ok?"

Savanna gave Freddie a thumbs up as he left her room, and let himself out, not saying a word to Spencer. His mind was set on his final stop before the rehearsal, where he would deal with Robbie right away without making a scene.

* * *

As Robbie nervously walked out of his bathroom when he heard the room's door open, he was already on edge to try and defend himself against the intruder. When he saw that it was just Freddie he breathed a sigh of relief.

That relief was quickly killed as the stronger of the two pinned Robbie against the wall.

"I got your message in the church today, Shapiro."

"Oh really? And what did you think of that?" Robbie said, unsure of what he was talking about, but trying to give him just as much attitude back.

"I think you're a sick fuck is what. And just so we're clear, you are no longer invited to the wedding." Freddie's eyes were practically bulging with rage and his sneer was overpowering on its own. "I can't believe I actually took pity on you all those times."

"Yeah…" Robbie said, feeling Rex deep in his mind try and jump out, and squirming from Freddie's grasp. "Well, you just wait for the biggest surprise, Freddie. I've got something coming that you and Jade are going to just looooove."

Robbie had no earthly idea what he was talking about or why he was antagonizing one of the few people that was ever truly nice to him, but he didn't know what else to do.

"Whatever… get your shit, and first boat out, I want you on it. And I don't ever want to see you again."

Before Robbie could say a word, Freddie was out the door, leaving Robbie to struggle against the voice in his head that screamed for some revenge.

* * *

"Any update on your dad?" Noelle asked, as the girls all sat around a table waiting for the grand march over to the church.

"He seems like he's going to recover. He said he won't be there tonight, but he wouldn't miss the real thing tomorrow."

"That's great," Tori added, touching Jade's shoulder. "I'm really happy you got that time to bond with your dad at least. Seems like it helped you guys."

"Yeah… not sure getting on good terms with him should have cost us all that time, energy, injury, but I guess it balances out," Jade said, smiling. It was a rare event to have a smile from Jade, but people couldn't help but marvel whenever it happened. "Is everyone going over tonight?"

"I think a few of the guys aren't," Carly said, looking around. "I know Amy's staying with your dad just in case he needs anything, and I actually don't know about anyone else."

"I texted Trina like an hour ago," Tori chimed in, "and she said that she might, but she's nursing a serious hangover apparently. Didn't even want to see me."

"I might actually skip out for this evening too," Tasha said, looking dazed. "I started feeling really sleepy earlier. I might just need a nap."

"God forbid you miss out on your beauty sleep," Sam cracked as she slid back so Tasha could get up and leave.

"I'll be back for dinner," she called back.

"I'm sure," Sam shot, almost yelling. "You'd never turn down a free drink."

"Is everyone who is coming… coming?!" Sikowitz called out in his usual yell-speak.

"Yeah… I think so," Freddie said, taking Jade's hand and leading her out the door, followed by the rest of the group. "I need to tell you something," he whispered to Jade.

"What?" she responded, scared that something was going on.

"I love you."

There was silence from Jade for a few seconds before she punched his arm.

"Don't do that!" she said in a hushed tone. "I've had enough scares today without your help, Freddie Benson."

The group piled into the church and small talk started up again, and the rehearsal was underway, even though they lacked a father of the bride as well as a small chunk of the wedding party. After a couple quick rehearsals, that Freddie and Jade kept snickering through, unable to stay serious, it was a nice change of pace for all those hectic and dangerous moments of the day.

After nearly an hour, they decided they could rehearse no more, and Jade called her dad to check on him but got no answer. She then tried Amy to see if everything was ok.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Amy… its Jade. I was just calling to see if dad's ok."

"Oh… yeah, I think so. Give me a sec. I've been trying to check on him every 15 minutes or so, and he's been doing fine. Mostly resting. I gave him some painkillers I just happened to have, so please don't ask, and…"

"Amy?..." Jade said into the phone but there was no response. "Amy are you-"

"Ohmygod…Jade… you… don't come back here… Send someone else. Send Spencer over! Now!"

Jade practically dropped the phone as she heard screaming from the other side and she could hear foot steps, and voices, but her mind was buzzing so hard she couldn't think.

"We need to get over to the inn now!" she practically yelled, and Freddie rushed to her side, and with a force of voice like Jade's no one was going to argue.

The group quickly filed out of the church, save for Sikowitz who volunteered to clean up, and practically ran to the inn, but when they got to the lobby, Nate and Beck were there to stop Jade and hold her back.

Freddie went on ahead and headed to the room where they had West resting. His stomach completely turned when he looked inside and saw his future father in law laying there with his throat slashed from ear to ear practically. From the look of it, it was done with something very sharp because Robert bled out quickly and no one heard a sound.

"Let me see him, goodammit!"

He turned and looked to the doorway where Jade had pushed her way through and as if in slow motion, her face went from fear to horror, to pure agony as she fell to her knees weeping uncontrollably. Her father, who she just made peace with and had plans for a whole new future… was dead. And worse, someone had murdered him.

* * *

Thankfully for Sikowitz, cleaning up the mess of the day earlier was infinitely more difficult than tossing some drinks and other trash behind. The church looked spotless after about ten minutes of work, and he happily walked out, whistling some island tune he had playing through his Pearpod. Before locking up, he hit the lights and went on his way to see what all the fuss was about.

* * *

Just as the lights went out downstairs in the church, upstairs, in the small windowless storage room, Tasha sat, strapped tightly to a chair and the lights became very bright rousing her. The model slowly started to groggily regain her faculties when she realized that she couldn't move her hands.

And when she attempted to cry out, that's when she felt the hard plastic in her mouth. As consciousness slowly returned, she began to realize that she'd been roofied, sadly not for the first time, and she was scared. Waking up in a dude's bed was one thing, but strapped to a chair with a plastic tube down her throat was another thing.

Doing her best to make noises, Tasha screamed and scrambled, and her eyes darted all over until she saw a clock that seemed to be counting down to something in 28 seconds. Now more frantic than ever, she wriggled and writhed around and tried everything she could to get out but the duct tape binding her arms and legs was strapped too tightly, and as the clock counted down, she saw what it was connected to.

It was like the game of MouseTrap where one thing would lead to another in a long Rube Goldberg type experiment. As the clock hit zero, a bottle of something tipped over, and once it tipped, Tasha could read the bottle, written in crude Sharpie: DRAIN CLEANER.

The fear she felt when she woke up was nothing once she felt the cold, sharp thick liquid slowly ooze down her esophagus. She coughed as hard as she could, trying to force it up but it was so heavy that she didn't stand a chance. The pain was almost instant and it was excruciating. She was completely powerless, helpless, and within a couple of minutes, she was as still as everything else in the church, her eyes open and face bleeding.

The only sound left in the old church was the faint dripping of what was left of the now hollow superstar model.

* * *

**I can already feel the complaints coming from killing off a hot semi-likable character and a freshly redeemed bad character at practically the same time, but it needed to be done. I was planning to kill another character off as well, but I thought two was enough. I really hope you guys liked it and please please please, review and give me some feedback.**

**For those of you looking for a great story, OneHorseShay has just finished up his Jade the Vampire Slayer and its been a great read, just like all his other works so check that/him out. Many thinks go to him, SVAD (at AO3), Challenge King, Commander Bly, and FanficReader88 for the constant push which got this out probably faster than I would have alone. **

**Thanks as always for reading.**


	7. Sizzle

**Despite having so much work to wade through, I still managed to get this thing out way faster than I thought I would. I know this chapter is going to make a couple people upset because of the core concept- that people die and sometimes it isn't the people we want. Also, whereas each chapter so far has essentially been a day, the rest of the story will kick up speed and each chapter will be a few hours. **

* * *

A bomb could have gone off in the inn and Jade West wouldn't have noticed, her entire world crashing down around her head and nothing but buzzing in her ears had turned her perception off completely.

She didn't hear the screams and the sirens that were now growing to deafening levels. Nor could she see beyond those blurry red and tear covered eyes. And she could barely feel her body moving as Freddie pulled her from the room, and ushered her to her makeshift room with Tori right by her side.

It was just unreal, Jade's scrambled brain forced out. Her dad was gone. And just as she had begun to make peace with him. He would never know how much she really loved him, or how sorry she was for being a bitchy teenage girl for most of her life. But worst of all was what he couldn't do; he would never have the chance to walk her down the aisle or be a grandfather to their child, or anything.

"Hey," a voice said, breaking her from her shattered future, and she quickly realized it was Freddie sitting on the edge of her bed. And then she noticed she was lying down and Tori standing over her. "Jade, baby… are you there?"

'Yeah…" she said weakly, causing Freddie and Tori to exchange looks.

"Ok…" he said with a deep breath. "I need to go back down there and help with… I don't know… I guess I need to step up for this. Tori is going to look after you, ok?"

Jade weakly nodded as Freddie stood and embraced Tori whispering something in her ear which seemed to be a surprise, but the look was completely missed by the barely conscious girl on the bed.

"Take care of her…" he said with a heavy sigh. "Call me if there is anything happening."

"Got it," Tori said, holding onto the hug for a second too long before he pulled away and headed out the door.

* * *

"I need everyone to stay calm, and to stay together!" An older, gravelly voice called to the den full of crying and scared people.

The voice belonged to Sheriff Bobby Singer, who looked around the same age as Col. Shay but his face was much more sunken, and a salt and pepper beard hid much of his facial nonverbal signals. Behind him stood two deputies, quiet and stiff.

"Listen," he said with a commanding voice that sounded more like someone from the deep south than a Washington native. "Everyone needs to report to their rooms and no one should be alone. I will be by to talk to each and everyone here. No one is to leave this building without talking to me first."

There was a steady sound of grumbling as people stood and headed off to their respective rooms while careful whispers began to move like waves through the crowd. Including Spencer and Amy who were so busy going back and forth about this ordeal, that they didn't pay attention to Savanna.

As the young girl walked by one of the rooms, she saw a face sticking out at her level, and she immediately recognized the curly black hair and glasses wearing face as Robbie. She started to wave, but he put his finger up to his lips giving her the shush signal before closing the door back once she gave him a nod.

Once he was alone with his deputies, Singer took a deep breath, and headed into the room where West's body still lay, with one thought on his mind: where was Mrs. West?

* * *

Just as Carly got into the room with Sam, the blonde got a call on her cell phone from an unknown number. Answering quickly, she heard faint music like someone playing a music box with a badly prerecorded voice.

"_One little, two little, three little Indians. Four little, five little, six little Indians."_

The song could have gone on, but Sam was so freaked out by it that she tossed her phone to the side, and figured it was just some kids playing a prank or something.

Once Carly got her stuff, she and Sam headed down the hall to the opened door of the large darkening sunroom, where Andre, Beck, Nate, and Gibby were all sitting around and talking.

"Was wondering when you girls were going to get over here," Andre said, trying to keep a light tone as he slid down the couch to make room for one of them.

"Just had to get my stuff," Carly said, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Heard you guys talking, and figured being alone was not ideal."

"Hey," Sam said, giving her best friend a glare. "I was there too."

"You know what I mean, Sam…" Carly said rolling her eyes.

"Whatever," the blonde said, reaching for a beer from the small cooler the guys had between them.

"I'm not sure it's the best idea to drink, guys," Gibby added, looking around and feeling nervous. "Maybe we should stay alert when the cops come and talk to us."

"Talk to us about what?" Beck asked, taking a long swig. "None of us had anything to do with any of it."

"Yeah," Carly added, "but you guys were all here when it happened, and we were at the wedding."

"Are we sure what happened to Jade's dad wasn't like self inflicted or accidental?" Gibby asked, looking around.

"No fucking way," Beck said looking dead ahead, and trying to form a thought that wouldn't speak ill of the dead. "Someone went to town on that guy, plus getting attacked by that dog. I never liked the guy, but that was pretty savage."

"You think it might be someone here?" Sam asked, leaning back on the couch.

"Like in this room?"

"No…" Nate said, putting his hand up to Andre. "She means is someone who we know responsible for killing Jade's dad."

"Seems like you got a pretty good motive, Beck," Sam said, cocking a glance his way.

"It could be anyone really, I guess," Andre said, looking all around the room. "Guy walks away from Cujo and ends up getting done in by some sicko… I'd hate to think that someone we know is capable of all this."

Carly was going to add something but faint sobbing distracted her, as Cat and Noelle came in, the redhead clearly bawling her eyes out in pain and fear.

"We need to get off this island, guys," the dark haired young woman said, helping Cat to a chair.

"Fucking seconded," Sam said, slamming her bottle on the table and reaching for another one everyone else just nodded in agreement to the sentiment.

* * *

"I don't need to tell you the sheer amount of fucked up this is right, Riggins?"

Sheriff Singer looked over his shoulder at his lead deputy as they looked over the body in front of them.

"No sir," he responded back, trying to keep his nose from inhaling too much of the smell and throwing up on an active crime scene. "Is there something I should know?"

"Yeah…" Singer said, looking at the neck slice closely. "That we have a serious problem. These cuts, the style and knife used… they are exactly what the Slasher used."

"But, sir, it's been over 20 years… and you…" the deputy didn't want to question his boss at all. "How is that possible?"

"Copycat, probably," he said coldly. "Which might be even worse because we don't know what this sick freak is capable of."

"But the Slasher is dead, right? You… you killed him… right?"

Singer turned and narrowed his eyes at the young officer, a clear anger and pain flaring in his sunken eyes. "Yes… The Slasher is dead. I... I know the Slasher is gone."

* * *

In Jade and Tori's room there was only silence as the pale brunette softly wept, clinging tightly to the chest of who would be her husband hours from now. Every so often, Tori and Freddie would exchange glances as if to ask what they should say or do in this situation, neither having any real answer to ease the pain that Jade was experiencing.

None of them had any idea how long they had been in the room there, feeling like it could have been hours, and other times, it felt like seconds. Every so often, Freddie would softly kiss the top of her reddened face as she stared off into oblivion.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Since Freddie had his hands full with Jade, Tori nearly jumped at the chance to end the silence and answered the door, expecting Singer, but was surprised to see Carly, who didn't wait for an invite as she stepped into the room.

"How is she?" she asked Freddie, which threw him since it wasn't like Jade was in another room.

"How do you think, Carly?" he responded, a bit more aggressively than he had meant to when her hurt face gave him the signal of hurt. "Sorry… not good."

"Man… we were just talking about how terrible this whole thing is," Carly said, but seemed distracted for a few moments, just looking at the near comatose Jade. "Can we talk outside for a minute, Freddie?"

"Sure…" he said, as Tori quickly rushed to take his place in holding Jade as they switched off and Freddie had a chance to get up and stretch for the first time in what felt like forever.

The two longtime friends stepped outside the room, and Carly quickly unloaded her feelings.

"I am so sorry, Freddie…" she said, trying not to look him in the eye. "I never imagined that any of this could happen, and I blame myself for choosing this place."

"It's not your fault, Carls," he said, reaching out to hug her. "None of the crap that happened today with her dad is remotely your fault, so stop beating yourself up. We were doing wedding planning, obviously."

"I know, but still… I can't help but feel like I should have picked a place where people wouldn't be murdered."

"And that place would be?"

Carly was silent, and flashed a weak smile which Freddie returned before speaking again.

"Look… I need to ask you about something."

"Sure," she said, looking up and down the halls for anyone that might be listening.

"It's about Robbie."

"The weird Jew-y puppet guy who is friends with Jade?"

"And me… but yeah," Freddie said, feeling uneasy at accusing a friend of such a heinous act. "Him. You know, he was the one who threw those firecrackers at us this morning with Savanna."

"Yeah… that doesn't really equal murder."

"No, but that mess in the church I had to go take care of does. It was a bunch of wild animal carcasses that it looked like someone dissected, and as Sikotitz and I were cleaning, I ran across this near one of them," he said, showing a tightly wrapped firecracker remnant to Carly. "Right before the rehearsal, I basically kicked him out and told him he wasn't welcome, and he said he had a real surprise coming. He wasn't at the church when West died, so I'm feeling really suspicious."

"Right… and you can't exactly tell Jade that right now, and they've all been friends for years."

"Thus why I'm telling you right now." Freddie took a deep breath. "I need to get back inside, and I don't want to make a big thing about Robbie until I'm sure, but I figured you needed to know at least."

"Ok, Freddie… we can talk later. I just… I just can't believe that he would be capable of something so godawful."

"Me either… but that's why I want to get to the bottom of all this."

The longtime friends shared a quick hug and Carly was on her way and Freddie prepared to reclaim his role as Jade's pillow.

"Everything ok?" Tori asked, as Freddie entered back, and he just nodded.

"She's just a bit freaked out," he said simply as he took his spot by Jade once more and cradled the head of his lover to his chest, stroking her hair softly and holding her close as she worked out whatever thoughts she needed to.

"Phone was nearly…" Tori stopped talking, realizing she was about to say a word she really didn't want to in front of Jade, and corrected herself. "I was charging my phone downstairs, I'm going to grab it really quick and I'll be right back."

Tori quickly gathered herself, and then headed on her journey, closing the door behind her.

She crept down the stairs, not wanting to get the cops' attention since she was defying their orders, and quickly found her Pearphone charging by the main window. She leaned over to unplug it and put it in her pocket, but when she looked back out the window, she nearly had a heart attack.

"Tori!" Robbie said in a hurried whisper from the other side of the glass. "I need you!"

"Robbie!" she nearly shouted before stopping herself. "What's going on? Why aren't you up in your room?"

"Come outside… please," he begged, looking more and more scared with each passing second.

Tori was a bit scared since Robbie was never the most balanced or normal person she'd ever met, but he was a friend, so that bought him time to talk. She rushed out of the main door and met the dark curly haired young man in the back yard.

"I know the cops are looking for me," he said hurriedly. "If Freddie hasn't already put them on my trail, he will really soon."

"Wait," Tori said, giving him a glare and raising her hand to stop him. "Why would Freddie of all people send the cops after you?"

"He came at me yelling and screaming about how I was sick, and I jokingly said that I had a surprise coming tonight. I was going to put a whoopee cushion in his chair at dinner… but then this thing with Jade's dad happened… I think he thinks that's my 'surprise.'"

"Why don't you just tell the cops or Freddie this?"

"Because of course they are going to think of the weird kid with all the mental problems is the one to blame. I need to get away, Tori…" Robbie said, looking around. "I found something in the woods, and you need to come with me to see it. I can prove that there's a killer here."

Tori was paralyzed with fear. She had no idea if she could trust Robbie, and he was certainly scared and acting completely different, so there was no telling what was going on with him. As she looked at the setting sun, she took a deep breath before taking a step of into the grass.

"Fine… but we have to be back before it gets dark."

"We will, Tori, I promise..." he huffed, leading her into the woods. "I just need someone to believe me."

For the next ten minutes, Tori was slowly led deeper and deeper into the woods, where Robbie pointed out different types of trips and traps that she needed to be careful. And while this was all about proving his innocence, his knowledge of some of the creepier stuff just made all this feel like it was a trap for her.

"Robbie…" she started, but he stopped, and looked back at her for a moment.

"This is it, Tori…" he said looking all around them, and then without any warning, he pulled out a knife, and charged at the pop singer.

* * *

"Now, I can't see any reason for you folks might have for having any sort of beef with Robert West."

Robert Singer stood before a seated Spencer, Amy, and Col. Shay, slowly looking them over, and spending an especially lengthy time staring at the former Air Force member. There was a clear air of hostility, and Spencer could feel it, and planned to ask his father immediately afterward what their deal was.

"So, can we get one of those boats and get out of here," Amy said impatiently.

"Not this evening ma'm," Singer said, switching to a more calm tone. "We haven't been getting any boats in or out for the last three or four days that weren't fishing boats that don't go more than a mile out. In fact, I think you folks were the last ones to actually arrive."

"That's impossible," Spencer said, interjecting. "There have been a few people who have left who got rides to the mainland, because of illness and whatnot. His wife was one of them."

"I got no idea what to tell you, Mister Shay… unless they snuck past our harbor master, docked without seeing anything, and moved like lightning before anyone could notice in town, then no one has left this island."

"So where are those people?"

"That's a good question, Mrs. Shay," Singer paused for a moment. "We need to find the answer."

"What would have stopped the boats… Sheriff?" There was a tight acidity to the way Steven Shay said that word that made it clear that there was a real issue.

"Fish migration. If boats came in and out, then it would disrupt what keeps this community going. Supposed to be done in a couple days, but I think this is a big enough deal that we can get you a boat by tomorrow to leave."

"Well, do you have any leads?" Amy asked nervously, looking into the bedroom where Savanna was still sitting on her bed playing. "Is there any chance someone here could have done something?"

"Not sure yet," Singer said, getting his notes together to leave. "I've spoken to a number of the friends of the bride and groom. Luckily, the three girls I talked to in that room at the end were forthcoming about some shady business. According to them and a couple of the guys verified this, apparently, one of the gentlemen here used to date the bride, and the Wests were apparently bribing him to try and end the wedding."

"If you're talking about Beck," Spencer said, speaking up for the teen, "I've heard he can be a bit scummy but the kid isn't a killer."

"That does raise a question, Spencer… I hope you don't mind if I call you that. I knew you when you were a little kid, actually. Do you remember the murders here when you were a kid? And-"

"We're done here, Sheriff." Steven said with an intensity that stung like a hot poker against Singer's skin.

"Maybe we are, but right now, I got a couple leads to check out, so I'm sure we will have this conversation again." Singer headed to the door, but paused, looking right at Col. Shay. "I need to go speak with the… groom and the bride. I just don't know how much I can get out of her."

"You do that," Shay said, with a mild sneer before standing up to address his son and daughter-in-law once there was quiet. He looked back at his family and his eyes were practically slits as he hissed. "You are not to trust or go near that man without me, do you understand?"

Spencer and Amy just nodded, wide eyed, feeling a whole new type of scared than they were feeling an hour before.

* * *

Tori barely had time to scream, as Robbie moved right past her with the knife and began cutting the edge of a brown rope that she hadn't even seen. Part of her was relieved when she realized he wasn't trying to hurt her, but that relief was short lived as rope loosened and branches cracked and Tori actually did scream when she saw what that rope was keeping up.

Sinjin.

More precisely, his body. He had no marks on him, but there were plenty of bruises along his figure, especially in the face. Both wondered how he got here if he wasn't even invited.

Tori looked to Robbie and saw that he truly seemed just as terrified.

"I saw the body in the tree when I was running when I heard the news. I've just been camped out here, but I needed someone to see… there's no way I could have done this. Or anything like this."

"I believe you, Robbie…" Tori said with a deep breath, trying to keep calm, even though the dead body of one of her high school friends was swaying back and forth. "But what exactly is this supposed to prove other than… well, other than that someone is murdering people? How does this clear you?"

"Because there's no way I could rig that type of thing up. I can barely tie my shoes most days… you know that."

"I guess so…" she said, her voice trailing and a flicker of doubt starting up. "We need to get back and tell that sheriff."

"No way, Tori… I'll get locked up!" he practically shouted back.

"I will vouch for you. Heck, my dad can vouch for you if you call him if anything happens."

Robbie stood there for what seemed like hours thinking his decision through, until finally he just pushed past Tori, and started walking back to the inn, doing his best to be confident, when inside he was practically screaming.

The two were silent, as they headed back to the inn, eager to get this nightmare over with, though Tori really wanted to say something, anything to make Robbie not feel like such an outcast or that all this was going to be ok, but she didn't know that and there was nothing she could say.

As they approached the back door, they saw Freddie pacing outside the door, and Tori suddenly became upset that he would just leave Jade at a time like this. Robbie began to slink back a bit, hoping that the guy who threatened him just hours before wouldn't see him.

"Where have you been, Tori?!" he said, coming towards her. "Sheriff has been looking to talk to everyone and-"

"Freddie," she said, cutting him off quickly. "We found Sinjin's body in the woods."

"The weird kid you… wait, we?"

"Yeah, Robbie found him," Tori said, gesturing for the dark haired young man to emerge from the woods, but as soon as he got within sight, Freddie rushed him and a strong tackle later, both were on the ground. Freddie naturally had the upper hand, and landed blow after blow to Robbie until he felt hands on his shoulders.

"Freddie! Stop!" Tori shouted, pulling the much stronger man off Robbie. "Robbie found the body… he didn't do anything. He's just trying to prove he's innocent."

"By showing you where the fucking bodies are? Oh yeah, Tori…" he said with a crisp sarcasm. "Really great defense there."

"He was just as surprised as I was. He didn't know who or what was there, but we found it together," Tori was trying to be the ref but as she said things out loud, she began to feel nervous. "He's not a killer, Freddie."

"That may be," the groom said, looking down at the badly injured Robbie. "But I think we both know someone who is one."

Tori's eyes flashed and her mouth opened in surprise as she knew exactly who he was talking about- Nate.

* * *

Feeling cramped with the others all in one room, Noelle decided to just walk the upstairs hall, just trying to wrap her mind around the fact that someone was murdered tonight. As she looked in random rooms that, after knocking, no one answered, she stumbled across a room that looked a bit out of place.

There was something off about the way the bed was made, very different than the others, but this room had not been registered to any guests at all. Noelle slunk into the room a bit more, looking for anything unusual, as her curiosity always got to her, and after looking under the bed, she made a startling discovery.

There was a folder that was full of old newspaper clippings going back twenty years, all the way until a couple weeks ago. And every single line had something to do with the murders and the killer from way back when:

**SCHNEIDER SLASHER IN CALIFORNIA?**

**RECOVERED BODIES IN SEATTLE AND SALEM MATCH THE SLASHER'S MO**

**SCHNEIDER SLASHER A WOMAN?**

**SLASHER: HORROR OR HOAX?**

**20 YEARS LATER, A LOOK BACK AT THE TRAGEDY**

**WAS THE SLASHER A GHOST?**

**DID THE SLASHER HAVE A FAMILY?**

**MAN CLAIMS SON WHO DIED IN BOSNIA WAS THE SLASHER**

**SLASHER VICTIMS REPORTED ALL ALONG WEST COAST**

Noelle thumbed through them, eager to find out if there was any sign of who these belonged to, but there was no sign, and so she decided to grab the bag and take it back to her own room and do some research and detective work of her own.

* * *

"Hey, Kelly, it's me," Beck said, pacing the hallway, cell phone in hand, trying desperately to get a hold of his former girlfriend and current… truth be told, he didn't really know what they were. "This is like the third message I've left you and I just wanted us to talk. There's some majorly fucked up shit here, so it's probably for the best that you left. Well… I guess, that's it. Call me back."

Beck quietly cursed to himself as he hung up, truly worried about what had happened to his longtime confidant. But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was truly wrong and getting the hell off this island jumped higher and higher on his priority list.

* * *

"King beats Jack!" Savanna shouted as she laid down her cards, sitting across the gruff stranger man who was asking her questions, looking at her mom in the doorway every so often.

The sheriff had waited for Steven to leave before returning to ask the little girls some questions he still had and figured if anyone noticed something, it would be a child.

"Yes, it does," Singer said in his softest and most peaceful voice as he played War with the child. "But nothing beats telling the truth, right?"

"Maybe…" she said, dropping higher and higher cards in their game. "I think chocolate cake is better."

Singer eyed the girl, unsure if she was trying to make a deal with him, but quickly shook the idea off, and smiled as he finally won a matchup.

"So, Savanna… what have you been doing the last day or so?"

"Nothing… I played with my new friend Robbie, but that's been it. I've stayed with mommy, daddy, and grandpa mostly."

"That's real good, Savanna," he said sweetly. "And you haven't seen anything strange?"

"Nope…" she said matter-of-factly, not even looking up. "Everyone is sad about that man though. It's sad that Jade lost her daddy."

"Yes it is…" his voice trailed off, and he got up from the table. "I need to go back to work, Savanna, but if you think of anything, tell your mom and dad, ok?"

"Yes, sir."

The grizzled sheriff headed towards the door and didn't say a word to Amy as he left, leaving much to be desired in how he handled people.

"Did I do good, mommy?"

"You sure did," Amy said, a smile plastered on her face.

"Would grandpa be proud of me?" Savanna asked, giving a very sick smile.

"Of course he would… why?"

"Because I told that man everything that grandpa told me to." Savanna said, walking back to her room. "He said he would get me some chocolate cake if I was a good girl and did what he told me to. I hope it's good."

Amy just stared in horror, and truly began to feel uneasy about her father-in-law as her daughter went back to playing like nothing in the world had happened.

* * *

"Let me guess…" Nate said, looking at the two people at his room's door. "You think I had something to do with this?"

"Can we at least come inside and talk?" Freddie asked politely. "No one is accusing you of anything, but you can understand why we might… think certain things."

"Fine…" the hearty man stepped back and allowed Freddie and Tori into his room. Robbie would have been with them, but he felt too uneasy, and since he was unaware of what Nate had done, Freddie and Tori figured that was for the best. "Go ahead."

"Nate…" Tori began, feeling a bit scared.

"Look, Tori… if you're trying to play on my feelings, it ain't gon' happen. Got over that infatuation a while back."

"After you killed a guy," Freddie interjected, and Nate rolled his eyes as if this was something they could just get over.

"So you told him," Nate said, looking at the clearly uneasy Tori.

"No…" Freddie answered. "I figured it out on my own, the next semester."

"And yet, you ain't done nothing to punish me for it?"

"Because Hunter was a bad guy, and I don't think you really meant to kill him. Plus, you taking the fall would get that sick asshole professor out, and I don't think anyone here wants that." Freddie looked over at Tori who took a seat on the bed, as he made that point, the image of him attacking her and Sam still fresh in his mind.

"Alright… Suppose that makes sense."

"And I honestly don't think you have anything to do with what happened to Jade's father because you tend to go after people that wrong Tori, and there's no evidence of that here," Freddie said, with only half as much confidence as he really felt. "Which leads us to the problem we have with Robbie."

"What's that shitbrain got himself into now?" Nate said, looking annoyed, but still remaining calm. "They don't honestly think he coulda done this, do they?"

"No-"

"We don't know," Freddie said, cutting Tori off quickly. "Tori thinks he's innocent, but he's not exactly my favorite person so I have my doubts about his innocence."

"He ain't done no harm to no one outside himself. Kid doesn't have that killer instinct."

"And we know you do," Freddie said, narrowing his eyes.

"You know the answer to that, boy. And this ain't so much about killing as it is about the old 'fight or flight' instinct. Robbie is the 'flight' type 110%... same goes with Tori. You and I though… we have our battle scars, don't we?"

Freddie looked at the intimidating, though younger, man in front of him, and just nodded that he perhaps had a good point. "That's fair," he said coldly, not wanting to admit how good of a point that was."

"That bein' said, though," Nate said, clearing his throat. "Rex is a different story."

"The puppet?!" Tori and Freddie said in near unison.

"No…" Nate said, rolling his eyes once more and shaking his head. "It's a part of his personality. I never liked when he'd turn into Rex when we'd hang out. Thought it was mighty stupid, but the split personality is there. Robbie's innocent, but his body might not be so clean."

"I didn't even think about that…" Tori said, burying her face in her hands.

"Yeah…" Freddie said, checking his watch. "And we let him go. We need to go track him down."

"Robbie's a good kid," Nate said, showing genuine emotion for the first real time since they arrived. "He just needs some serious help and I pray he ain't the one who put West down."

"You and me both, Nate," Tori said, looking at the overwhelming man, and thought she saw, if only for a moment, that gleam of something sorrowful in his eyes.

* * *

"You stole these?!"

"No, Cat," Noelle said, trying to clamp her hand over her lover's mouth so she wouldn't scream out so much. "I found them in an empty room, and I don't know who they belong to."

In front of the girls were all the newspaper clippings that had been gathered, though the one listing the victims seemed to be removed for some reason.

"Someone has been keeping track of this island mass murderer, and they were here when someone got killed. That's enough to make me uneasy."

"But Noey… why would anyone keep this sad stuff?" Cat asked in her most childlike voice as they sat together, still holding hands.

"I don't know, but if you look at this picture of the west coast and get these in order, it looks like this killer went all the way down the west coast to where we live… though this would have been before I came down." Noelle grabbed a pen and began tracing the suggested path down and then back up, going through the same cities, until she had practically reached the present.

"You made a big ring," Cat said excitedly, eager at the word.

"Yeah… if this is true, then this mythical killer might be back here…" Noelle said, with an uneasy horror in her tone.

"Hey, baby…" Cat said, rubbing her slim and tanned leg against Noelle's smooth pale leg.

"Yes…"

"What did you do with that ring?"

Noelle took a deep sigh before she looked Cat in the eyes. "I've still got it. Are you asking why I haven't proposed yet?"

"Uh huh…" the redhead said, nodding softly.

"Sweetie… I'm not going to propose to you here and now… not with all this going on, and one of your best friends losing her father just hours ago. It wouldn't be right."

"KK," Cat muttered, looking incredibly sad as she made her way to their bed and laid down, trying not to see that answer as proof that Noelle didn't love her.

* * *

"About time I ran into you two…" Singer said, as he saw Tori and Freddie going across the poorly lit back lawn. "I've been really eager to talk to you... but it seems you didn't want to listen."

"Sir, we need to talk to you about someone who might be involved," Tori said excitedly, eager to get this nightmare over with, but wanting to come clean to the cop right away, like she would with her father.

"Go on…" he said, stroking his beard.

"Tori and I found a body in the woods today, with the help of Robbie. The others might have mentioned him."

Singer stared at Freddie, as if something was wrong with the young man, but he kept shaking the look off.

"A high school friend of ours…" Tori started, but quickly tried to breathe as pure fear was taking over, "Sinjin Van Cleef, who wasn't invited or anything… we found his body strung up in the trees and-."

"Wait… strung up how?"

"He was just wrapped up and was just dangling from a vine… When Robbie cut the rope, he fell pretty fast so seeing how he was hanging was hard to really see."

"So you think this Sinjin boy was involved somehow?" Singer said, narrowing his eyes at the two of them.

"No…" Freddie said, giving Tori a look as if to apologize. "It's Robbie… Shapiro. He's not well, and he found the body, and he has some issues. He needs to be picked up and at least held for his own safety. Maybe for ours too."

"I'll send someone into the woods tonight, but-"

"Do you think this could be the Slasher?" Tori said, quickly cutting the cop off and eager to clear her friend with any possibilities.

"No," Singer said stiffly, almost sneering as he spoke. "You kids don't know anything about all of that stuff, and you need to lose that thinking right now. We'll find your sick friend and we'll take care of him. But-"

"Sheriff?" came a voice from his walkie talkie.

"Yeah?" he grabbed it and responded.

"If you're done, there's apparently a fire down by the docks. Figured that might take priority right now."

"Shit… alright, Dawkins," Singer put the device back on his belt and locked eyes with the two young people looking as angry as humanly possible. "You too need to stop chasing after ghost stories. There's no way the Slasher is still around. First boat out of here tomorrow, I'm getting you people off my island, and I don't ever want to see or hear of you people again."

Freddie couldn't help but clench his fist as he watched the cop walk away, feeling some incredibly deep anger and hatred as he watched the man walk away, and before he even realized it, Tori's hand was on his, and she led him back upstairs to check back in on Jade, where they would no doubt spend the night.

* * *

"You've known Spencer and the Colonel for a while, right?"

Amy was sitting on a table in the isolated kitchen as Gibby started gathering all of his supplies, word of their impending exodus still heavily on his mind.

"Yeah… a little," he said, unsure of what to make of what Amy had just told him about Savanna and her deal with her father in law. "But he was always really private and none of us really know what exactly he did in the military."

"Exactly…" she said, taking a long swig of beer, shaking her head, and thankful that Spencer would be watching her child closely, even if she couldn't talk to him about his dad. "I can't exactly go to Spencer, or even Carly, with this stuff, and you're like the next best thing."

"Besides Sam and Freddie…" Gibby said, knowing where he ranked on the important people list.

"The psycho and the guy who, after his fiancée's dad dies, apparently spends the whole day with another woman?" Amy said, rolling her eyes. "Real solid choices."

"Sam's not that-"

KLUNK

"What was that?!" Amy shouted as she hopped off the table and checked the main door where the sound came from alongside Gibby. To their surprise the door, the only real way in or out, was locked tight.

As they stood there, trying to push through and bust the door open while crying for help, they were quickly wearing themselves out. And that's when the ticking sound started.

"We need to find a way out of here now…" Gibby said, looking all around, trying to find another exit when a smell hit his nose.

"What is that?" Amy asked, smelling it too, and as if they shared a psychic link, they realized that it was gas…

"Fucking fuck…" Amy said, starting to completely lose it.

"What about that window?" he pointed up at a narrow pane.

"No way we can fit through there…" she said, quickly dismissing it.

"For me, yeah… but you could definitely…" Amy's eyes widened but Gibby just gave her a look back that signaled that he knew what he was doing. "You've got a kid and a family… that beats my food joint."

Amy wanted to argue but the sound seemed to be getting more intense, but that could have just been her heartbeat. Using his shoulders to help her, she managed to reach the window and open it fully.

"Go!" he yelled, starting to lose his ability to hold her, as her weight slowly disappeared and she pulled herself from the window and outside to safety.

"You could still fit!" Amy shouted down, knowing it wasn't true but he might be out of the way, but he just stood there and sighed.

"Just tell everybody that my last words were something awesome," he said with a slight smirk, clearly accepting what was about to happen.

"GIBBY!-"

**KABOOM**

The force of the blast knocked Amy back momentarily, and her senses were all askew, unable to hear or see straight as she stumbled around. She clumsily raced for the door to see if it would open the other way and try and pull Gibby out, if he was still alive.

She struggled against the door for a few moments before it finally opened, and flames licked all over the place, and she could see that Gibby was burned all along his face. She started screaming for help, and was relieved when she felt someone behind her.

And then she felt cold water, as if someone was trying to put her out, but the water smelled strange to the young woman, and in an instant, she knew that it wasn't water. It was gasoline.

She tried to run, but whoever this was kicked her hard behind her knees before pushing her forward, and Amy knew for the second she had left, that the end was inevitable. She felt the searing heat, unlike anything she'd ever felt, and she couldn't do anything but scream and roll around. As the crackling noise grew louder and she stopped feeling pain, she knew that she was going into shock as her last sight was her assailant calmly backing away, throwing the bucket into the kitchen, and then closing the doors.

* * *

**I had someone ask when this story was going to blow up and get going, a couple chapters ago, and I suppose this serves as their answer. I was torn about killing two people together, good characters for the most part, but I knew it had to be done for the good of the story. But I added a new character in, using Jim Beaver's Supernatural name since he was also a part of Harper's Island. I know there are more and more questions raised with each chapter, and no one seems particularly innocent. So, I am really anxious to get your thoughts, readers and I hope you enjoyed. Thanks as always for reading, and I truly hope you continue to enjoy the story even if some of your favorites... burn out (I couldn't help myself). **


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